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APPROACHES IN LANGUAGE TESTING Sub-topic: Constructing Test / Kind of

Test

Preprint · April 2014

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22009.16484

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Ismail Sangkala
Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar
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Makassar Muhammadiyah University
English Edu. Dept.

APPROACHES IN LANGUAGE TESTING

Sub-topic: Constructing Test / Kind of Test
By Ismail Sangkala, M.Pd.

1. Discrete-point Testing Approach

Discrete Point tests are constructed on the assumption that language can be divided
into its components parts, and those parts can be tested successfully. The components
are the skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and various unit of language of
phonology, morphology, lexicon, and syntax. Discrete point tests aim to achieve a high
reliability factor by testing a large number of discrete items, but each question tests only
one linguistic point.

2. Integrative Testing Approach

This approach involves the testing of language in context and is thus concerned
primarily with meaning and the total communicative effect of discourse. This approach
stated that communicative competence is so global that it requires the integration of all
linguistic abilities. According to Oller (1983), if discrete items take language skill apart,
integrative tests put it back together; whereas discrete items attempt to test knowledge
of language a bit at a time, integrative tests attempt to assess a learner’s capacity to
use many bits all at the same time.

The fact that discrete point and integrative testing only provided a measure of the
candidate’s competence rather than measuring the candidate’s performance brought
about the need for communicative language testing (Weir 1990). By the mid-1980s, the
language-testing field had abandoned arguments about the unitary competence and
had begun to focus on designing communicative language testing (Brown, 2004)

3. Communicative Testing Approach

Communicative testing approach lays more emphasis on the notion and function, like
agreeing, persuading, or inviting, that language means in communication.
Communicative language testing approach is used to measure language learners’
ability to use the target language in authentic situations. The approach beliefs that
someone/ a student is considered successful in learning the target language if she/he
can communicate or use knowledge and skills by way of authentic listening, speaking ,
reading and writing . Communicative language tests have to be as accurate a reflection
of that situation as possible. The example of communicative language test is role-play.
The teacher asks students to do a role-play such as pretending that the students come
to the doctor, pretending that the students are in the market.
Makassar Muhammadiyah University
English Edu. Dept.

The principles of testing in the communicative language testing can be describe as the
following (Anon, 1990):

 Tasks in the test should resemble as far as possible to the ones as would be
found in real life in terms of communicative use of language
 There is a call for test items contextualization.
 There is a need to make test items that address a definite audience for a
purposeful communicative intent (goal) to be envisioned (might happen).
 Test instructions and scoring plans should touch on effective, communication of
meaning rather than on grammatical accuracy

4. Performance testing approach

Any assessment can be considered a type of performance when a student is placed in

some context and asked to show what they know or can do in that context.
Performance-based assessment believes that the students will learn best when they are
given a chance to perform and show what they know according to their own plan, collect
data, infer pattern, draw conclusion, take a stand or deliver presentation. According to
Brown(2004), In developing performance-based assessment, we as teacher should
consider the following principle:

 State the overall goal of the performance

 Specify the objectives (criteria) of the performance in details
 Prepare students for performance in stepwise progressions
 Use a reliable evaluation form, checklist or rating sheet
 Treat performances as opportunities for giving feedback and provide that
feedback systematically

If possible, utilize self- and peer-assessments judiciously (wisely/carefully)

Strengths and Weaknesses of Language Testing Approach

1. Discrete-point Testing Approach

Strength

 The test of this approach can cover a wide range of scope of materials to be put
in the tests.
 The test allows quantification on the students’ responses.
 In the term of scoring, the test is also reliable because of its objectivity; the
scoring is efficient, even it can be perform by machine

Weaknesses
Makassar Muhammadiyah University
English Edu. Dept.

 Constructing discrete point test items is potentially energy and time consuming.
 The test do not include social context where verbal communication normally take
place.
 Success in doing the test is not readily inferable to the ability of the test taker to
communicate in real life circumstances.

2. Integrative Testing Approach

Strength

 The approach to meaning and the total communicative effect of discourse will be
very useful for pupils in testing
 This approach can view pupils’ proficiency with a global view.
 The strength of the test such as dictation, writing, and cloze test is that relatively
cheap and easy to make

Weaknesses

 Even if measuring integrated skills are better but sometimes teacher should
consider the importance of measuring skills based on particular need, such as
writing only, speaking only
 The scoring is not efficient and not reliable

3. Communicative Testing Approach

Strength

 The tests are more realistic to evaluate the students’ language use, as the
students in a role as though they were to communicate in the real world / daily
lives.
 It increases students’ motivation since they can see the use of language they
learnt in class in the real world.

Weaknesses

 Not efficient (time and energy consuming)

 Problem of extrapolation (Weir, 1990) (we cannot guarantee that the students
who successfully accomplish the task in class will also be successfull in the
communication in real life)

4. Performance Testing Approach

Strengths
Makassar Muhammadiyah University
English Edu. Dept.

 Increasing learning motivation (The students tend to be more motivated and

involved when they are allowed to perform according to their own plan, collect
data, infer a pattern, draw conclusions, take stand, or deliver a presentation.)
 Meaningful (it is meaningful assessment since we require students to show what
they can do through project, performance, or observation. It will give them
learning experience more than just paper and pencil test)
 Authentic (since the materials and topics we use in class is authentic, the
students can see the relation of what they learn with the reality in their daily
lives)
 Challenge high order thinking of students (In order to prepare for the best
performance, the students will try their best to analyze the problem deeper and
find many learning sources by themselves )

Weaknesses

 Time consuming (for students: they need to prepare the performance e.g.
Download information for the Internet or preparing the costume and property for
role-play, for teacher: Teachers need to provide guidance in every stage they are
going to be through. For example, in assessing the students to make portfolio of
essay, we need to check every single paper of the students one by one every
week, and when it has been revised, we have to check it again.
 Expensive (Students: the students should provide extra money to prepare the
performance such as costumes for role play)
 Challenge the teacher to match performance assessment to classroom goals and
learning objectives.

 INTRODUCTION FOR CONSTRUCTING TEST

Here are a few general guidelines to help you get start:

 Consider your reasons for testing. Will this quiz monitor the students’ progress
so that you can adjust the pace of the course? Will ongoing quizzes serve to
motivate students? Will this final provide data for a grade at the end of the
quarter? Will this mid-term challenge students to apply concepts learned so far?
The reason(s) for giving a test will help you determine features such as length,
format, level of detail required in answers, and the time frame for returning results
to the students.
 Maintain consistency between goals for the course, methods of teaching, and
the tests used to measure achievement of goals. If, for example, class time
emphasizes review and recall of information, then so can the test; if class time
emphasizes analysis and synthesis, then the test can also be designed to
demonstrate how well students have learned these things.
Makassar Muhammadiyah University
English Edu. Dept.

 Use testing methods that are appropriate to learning goals. For example, a
multiple choice test might be useful for demonstrating memory and recall, for
example, but it may require an essay or open-ended problem-solving for students
to demonstrate more independent analysis or synthesis.
 Help Students prepare. Most students will assume that the test is designed to
measure what is most important for them to learn in the course. You can help
students prepare for the test by clarifying course goals as well as reviewing
material. This will allow the test to reinforce what you most want students to learn
and retain.
 Use consistent language (in stating goals, in talking in class, and in writing test
questions) to describe expected outcomes. If you want to use words
like explain or discuss, be sure that you use them consistently and that students
know what you mean when you use them.
 Design test items that allow students to show a range of learning. That is,
students who have not fully mastered everything in the course should still be able
to demonstrate how much they have learned.

A. Based on Purposes

There are many kinds of tests; each test has specific purpose and a particular criterion
to be measured. This paper will explain about five kinds of tests based on specific
purposes. Those tests are proficiency test, diagnostic test, placement test, achievement
test, language aptitude test.

1. Proficiency Test

The purpose of proficiency test is to test global competence in a language. It tests

overall ability regardless of any training they previously had in the language. Proficiency
tests have traditionally consisted of standardized multiple-choices item on grammar,
vocabulary, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension. One of a
standardized proficiency test is TOEFL.

2. Diagnostic Test

The purpose is to diagnose specific aspects of a language. These tests offer a checklist
of features for the teacher to use in discovering difficulties. Proficiency tests should elicit
information on what students need to work in the future; therefore the test will typically
offer more detailed subcategorized information on the learner. For example, a writing
diagnostic test would first elicit a writing sample of the students. Then, the teacher
would identify the organization, content, spelling, grammar, or vocabulary of their
writing. Based on that identifying, teacher would know the needs of students that should
have special focus.
Makassar Muhammadiyah University
English Edu. Dept.

3. Placement Test

The purpose of placement test is to place a student into a particular level or section of a
language curriculum or school. It usually includes a sampling of the material to be
covered in the various courses in a curriculum. A student’s performance on the test
should indicate the point at which the student will find material neither too easy nor too
difficult. Placement tests come in many varieties: assessing comprehension and
production, responding through written and oral performance, multiple choice, and gap
filling formats. One of the examples of Placement tests is the English as a Second
Language Placement Test (ESLPT) at San Francisco State University.

4. Achievement Test

The purpose of achievement tests is to determine whether course objectives have been
met with skills acquired by the end of a period of instruction. Achievement tests should
be limited to particular material addressed in a curriculum within a particular time frame.
Achievement tests belong to summative because they are administered at the end on a
unit/term of study. It analyzes the extent to which students have acquired language that
have already been taught.

5. Language Aptitude Test

The purpose of language aptitude test is to predict a person’s success to exposure to

the foreign language. According to John Carrol and Stanley Sapon (the authors of
MLAT), language aptitude tests does not refer to whether or not an individual can learn
a foreign language; but it refers to how well an individual can learn a foreign language in
a given amount of time and under given conditions. In other words, this test is done to
determine how quickly and easily a learner learn language in language course or
language training program. Standardized aptitude tests have been used in the United
States:

1. The Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT)

2. The Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB)

B. Based on Response

There are two kinds of tests based on response. They are subjective test and objective
test.

1. Subjective Test
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English Edu. Dept.

Subjective test is a test in which the learners ability or performance are judged by
examiners’ opinion and judgment. The example of subjective test is using essay and
short answer.

2. Objective Test

Objective test is a test in which learners ability or performance are measured using
specific set of answer, means there are only two possible answer, right and wrong. In
other word, the score is according to right answers. Type of objective test includes
multiple-choice tests, true or false test, matching and problem based questions.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Commonly Used Types of Objective Test

Type of test Advantages Disadvantages

True or False Many items can be administered Limited primarily to testing

in a relatively short time. knowledge of information.
Moderately easy to write and Easy to guess correctly on
easily scored. many items, even if material
has not been mastered.

Multiple Can be used to assess a broad Difficult and time consuming

Choice range of content in a brief period.
Skillfully written items can be
measure higher order cognitive
skills. Can be scored quickly.
to write good items. Possible
to assess higher order
cognitive skills, but most
items assess only
knowledge. Some correct
answers can be guesses.

Matching Items can be written quickly. A Higher order cognitive skills

broad range of content can be difficult to assess.
assessed. Scoring can be done
efficiently.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Commonly Used Types of Subjective Test

Type of test Advantages Disadvantages

Short Many can be administered in a Difficult to identify defensible

Answer brief amount of time. Relatively criteria for correct answers.
Makassar Muhammadiyah University
English Edu. Dept.

efficient to score. Moderately Limited to questions that can

easy to write items. be answered or completed in a
few words.

Essay Can be used to measure higher Time consuming to administer

order cognitive skills. Easy to
write questions. Difficult for
respondent to get correct
answer by guessing.
and score. Difficult to identify
reliable criteria for scoring.
Only a limited range of content
can be sampled during any
one testing period.

C. Based on Orientation and the Way to Test

Language testing is divided into two types based on the orientation. They are language
competence test and performance language test. Language competence test is a test
that involves components of language such as vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation
while performance test is a test that involves the basic skills in English that are writing,
speaking, listening and reading. Moreover, language testing is also divided into two
types based on the way to test. They are direct testing and indirect testing. Direct
testing is a test that the process to elicit students’ competences uses basic skill, like
speaking, writing, listening, or reading while indirect language testing is a test that the
process to elicit students’ competences does not use basic skills.

From the explanation above, language testing can be divided into four types based on
orientation and the way to test. They are direct competence test, indirect competence
test, direct performance test, and indirect performance test.

Direct Indirect

Competence/ system I II

Performance III IV

1. Direct Competence Tests

The direct competence test is a test that focuses on to measure the student’s
knowledge about language component, like grammar or vocabulary, which the
elicitation uses one of the basic skills, speaking, listening, reading, or writing. For the
example, teachers want to know about students’ grammar knowledge. The teacher asks
the students to write a letter to elicit students’ knowledge in grammar.
Makassar Muhammadiyah University
English Edu. Dept.

2. Indirect Competence Test

The indirect competence test is a test that focuses on to measure the student’s
knowledge about language component, like grammar or vocabulary, which the
elicitation does not use one of the basic skills, speaking, listening, reading, or writing.
The elicitation in this test uses other ways, such as multiple choices. For example, the
teachers want to know about students’ grammar knowledge. The teacher gives a
multiple-choice test for the students to measure students’ knowledge in grammar.

3. Direct Performance Test

Direct performance test is a test that focuses on to measure the students’ skill in
reading, writing, speaking, and listening that the elicitation is through direct
communication. For example, the teacher want to know the students skill in writing, the
teacher ask the students to write a letter, or to write a short story.

4. Indirect Performance Test

Indirect performance test is a test that focuses on measure the students’ skill in reading,
writing, speaking, and listening that the elicitation does not use the basic skill. For
example, the teacher want to measure the students skill in listening. The teacher gives
some picture and asks the students to arrange the students the pictures into correct
order based on the story that they listen to.

D. Based on Score Interpretation

There are two kinds of tests based on score interpretation. They are norm-
referenced test and criterion-referenced test.

1. Norm-Referenced Test

Norm-referenced tests are designed to highlight achievement differences between and

among students to produce a dependable rank order of students across a continuum of
achievement from high achievers to low achievers (Stiggins, 1994). School systems
might want to classify students in this way so that they can be properly placed in
remedial or gifted programs. The content of norm-referenced tests is selected according
to how well it ranks students from high achievers to low. In other words, the content
selected in norm-referenced tests is chosen by how well it discriminates among
students. A student’s performance on a norm referenced test is interpreted in relation to
the performance of a large group of similar students who took the test when it was first
normed. For example, if a student receives a percentile rank score on the total test of
34, this means that he or she performed as well or better than 34% of the students in
 Makassar Muhammadiyah University
English Edu. Dept.

the norm group. This type of information can useful for deciding whether or not students
need remedial assistance or is a candidate for a gifted program. However, the score
gives little information about what the student actually knows or can do.

2. Criterion-Referenced Test

Criterion-referenced tests determine what test takers can do and what they know, not
how they compare to others (Anastasi, 1988). Criterion-referenced tests report how well
students are doing relative to a pre-determined performance level on a specified set of
educational goals or outcomes included in the school, district, or state curriculum.
Educators may choose to use a criterion-referenced test when they wish to see how
well students have learned the knowledge and skills which they are expected to have
mastered. This information may be used as one piece of information to determine how
well the student is learning the desired curriculum and how well the school is teaching
that curriculum. The content of a criterion-referenced test is determined by how well it
matches the learning outcomes deemed most important. In other words, the content
selected for the criterion-standard test is selected on the basis of its significance in the
curriculum. Criterion-referenced tests give detailed information about how well a student
has performed on each of the educational goals or outcomes included on that test.

Sources:

1. Ratna Komala Dewi, Nuke Sari Natiti (Language Learning Assessment Course
English Department of the State University of Malang)

2. University of Washington, Center for Teaching and Learning

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