SECTION 1 Survey1 Testing, testing ... What is a language test? y, Testing for purpases of detec ome an accepted part of spore ‘other fields, Tests to: toa thnesholel af ppracess, which so wch affects our lives, becomes the province of experts and Wwe recome dependent on them, of langage testing, Ise or excite much imme I probably take the fo sage tests may conjure ap tiation rosin, a test paper w sperate scribbling against the TESTING, TESTING 5 — rE SsSeeelllttice under up a portfolio of writen or are very different id interrogation associated arises, af course. fevelaped, and whi is the purpose of th Understanding language testing for deve! test developme expertise Hd. Ba people working in the field of language study more general ‘want co be able to participate as necessary in the discourse uber of reasons, in employment, anc! in mi age tests are devices for the is clearly: importane that . See ‘with language tests in your professional life as a teacher or SURVEY ‘Types of test ‘Not all language tests are of the & nd. They differ they are for: respect to test ielfrad anal test In terms of metho, we can broad traditional Dapor:and.pencif language tests {rom performance tests. Paper and: | teats take che farm of the famili ques sessment either of sepa sholce formats as in the following example froxt 0 Selger the most appropriate eomy Twonder what the newspaper says about read the criticism opinion he sentence, ‘ems in likely re natives Je choice format present a range of an test-taker. Only one of the he key, marked here with an asterisk) is co TESTING, TESTINGothers ithe distractors) are based on typical confi derstandings seen in learners’ actempes 10, scanielace's among those pre tests of speaking, saraple om, ‘The most familiar at between achievement tionship to I irmay focus on 6 sunvEY work sett ee tasks a8 c¢ obscured by the fact that some testing provedures, pal performance assessment, appeay to involve divest observation, Fy real warld bebu8 a Tecrure—test only as indicacars of related, tasks in the: | Test ] A performance or series of Test performances are used ax the basis for mal abaut criterion performances. th professionals, this might be beeween Buren a doctoranda pai anpear to be very SURVEY ance does nor exist for ny the newspaper ie writer used peneil tests, itis cle its awn sake, The test provi famously assess oral ber of other linsts co the authentitty of tests ecognize an inevitable gap between the rest in those forras af direct pei period in which behavio led (for example, a teacher's ability to use 4a series of lessons h we have to-stop fidate—that is, subsequent ro the assessn thar our conclusions n relation to the fences in the conditio rounds uations al ya very brief period of sa iidate behaviour—usually a couple of| ral tests may last only & few minutes. Another const ‘on direct knowledge of the criterion isthe resting equivalent ofthe Ob is, the very act of obsereat change the behaviour being observed. We all know how 1, We are not interested in the al use for their own sake; if we were, nterested in, the sample performance tbe a test. Rather, we wat ne what the particular TESTING, TESTINGhip between scores given a regories may have serious others who havea stake hasis for predictio - in real world comtexts, is produced ce for their positiom in performance on cl ents as other and evidence it deals with have co do about then: aspects of that abil ‘aters of speaking skills are sometimes req) atid where they record separate impressions of aspects of speak- such as pronunci racy, he like, Using data procedures, we will he ia a pos est Sores) pro to examine ex SURVEY