I.

 
QUALITIES OF A LANGUAGE TEST
According to Brown (2010), there are five criteria contributing to the process of creating a
language test, named practicality, reliability, validity, authenticity and washback. Similarly,
Bachman and Palmer (1996) hold the same belief. However, these categories are classified into a
different way. According to them, an effective and useful test should consist of six essential
qualities, which are practicality, validity, reliability, authenticity, and impact. There is no
implication for the order of these qualities. However, validity and reliability are referred as two
crucial measurement qualities and two prerequisites given that these two qualities affect directly
to the content of the test.

2.
 
RELIABILITY
Bachman nand Palmer (1996) stated that a test will be reliable if it is dependable and consistent.
This means that every students are given the same test under that same circumstances. There are
some issue that affect to the reliability of a test, which are students, the scorer, the administration
and the test itself.

2.1
 
Student-related reliability
Temporary sickness, apprehension or some sudden psychological factors make the test
unreliable. For example a student in my class who are really good at English; he, however,
committed chickenpot is such kind of humid weather in the test day. As a results, he did not do
the test well as many previous test that he had done before. On the contrary, on another test day
in my class, one of my students also did the test with flying colors although his English
proficiency is low. However he can still do the test perfectly as he can guest the meaning of the
new world. In this case, the test is not really reliable (Mousavi, 2002, p. 804).
2.2
 
 Rater reliability
According to Brown (2010), rater reliability is devided into two smaller categories, which are
inter-rater reliability and intra-rater reliability. Inter-rater reliability happens when the scorers do
not pay much attention to the rubric, which leads to the inconsistency of giving marks. Intra-rater
reliability is related to the carelessness of the scorer and unclear rubric. For instance, in my
teaching context, I have a thirty- student class, which makes me tired when I have to mark thirty
essays as the mid term test. At first I was carefull to correct the students’ erros and give them
recommendation. However, things seem to be different to the 20th essay, I feel tired and just
mark the paper without carefullness. Therefore, I recognized some mistakes after finishing and
reviewing the test paper.
2.3
 
Test Administration Reliability
The administration also affect to the reliability of the test. The facility, test paper, outside
environment should be check carefully by the administrators before the test starts. For example, I
have a case that unreliiability violated in my class. In my class there is only one speaker put on
the teacher’s table. Because of it was a spacious classroom with thirty students, those who are
sitting at the back of the class can not listen well in listening test. Therefore the result of students
who sit far from the speakers are affected in some extend.
2.4
 
Test reliability
The test is too long can make the test takers feel exhausted and under the pressure of the
presence of the clock. Usually, students will not concentrate on some final parts of the test
anymore, they just want to finish testing to escape from the pressure. In this case, the students’
products can not be assessed reliably.

PRACTICALITY
A test is said to be effective if it is practical (Brown, 2010). Time and money are considered as
fundametal elements to make the test practical. A test conducted with an affordable amount of
money is practical. In other words, a test is expensive and costly which is not necessary to
achieve the main goal of the test is also not impractical. In my real teaching circumstance, it
depends on my class budget and the requirement of the test that I will deliver the answer sheet of
the test. For instance, if that is a test about assessing vocabulary of students, I ask my students to
take out a piece of paper and use it as the test paper. With any tests more formal, I will manage
the class’s budget to print out the answer sheet, which effectively meet the goals of the tests.
Moreover, time is said to be the second integral factor to build up a practical test. If a test lasts
more time than it should be, it is impractical. For example, a listening TOEIC test may last forty
to forty five minutes. However, that the administrator let the test taskers two hours to complete
the test is not practical. Furthermore, a test will be more practical if it is easy for administrator to
conduct.
About money and time to conduct a test. Last but not least, a specific scoring process will
contribute to the practicality of a test. For example, it is clear that candidates have to wait until
thirteen or fifteen days after the test date to receive their result. In the reality, there are still some
universities in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam did not mark the students’ products on time. These
kind of tests are consider to be impractical.

WASHBACK
Washback is the effect of testing on teaching and learning (Hughes, 2003 as cited in Brown
2010), regarded as one aspect of consequential validity mentioned above. Initially, washback
affects to the instruction on how students prepare for the test. For example, if students are
instructed to to prepare for multiple-choice test in reading for their progress test, they will have
different reviewing strategies in comparision with preparing for a reading test with only short
answer questions. Another form of washbach happens more regularly in classroom assessment is
that students learn from their strengths and weaknesses after the test. Once more typical example
can be seen on some international standardized tests such as IELTS or TOEIC, in which students
have to get used to with forms and the test tasks of those tests to have good  preparations for
them. Also, washback affects to the way teachers deliver the lecture. For example, in Vietnam, to
assist student to prepare for the entrance examination to university, English teachers focus on
grammar, vocabulary and reading tasks, which will help students to acquire high score in the test.
In this case, listening and speaking tasks are ignored.

PREFERENCE
https://www.academia.edu/36938714/Title_of_This_Item_of_Work_Six_Qualities_of_a_Good_
Language_Test_and_a_List_of_Actions_to_Improve_Each_of_Those_Qualities_Language_Testi
ng_and_Assessment_Six_Qualities_of_A_Good_Language_Test