Assessment

and testing

Assessing students

Students are often assessed and tested to see how well they have done, how well they are
doing or how well they perform in standard (often national) exams.

Types of assessment
• Assessment can be either FORMATIVE or SUMMATIVE . Formative assessment happens
when we test students so that we can help them to do better next time. We might say
that a lot of CORRECTION -+ 73 -75 is a kind of mini formative assessment. Summative
assessment happens when we want to see how well students have done - testing their
knowledge at the end of something (a semester or a year) or in some PUBLIC EXAM .

• Teachers conduct I N FORMAL ASSESSMENT all the time. We are constantly evaluating our
students' progress and abilities so that we can decide what to do next in a lesson - or
when we are PLANNING future lessons -+ 79.

• vVe give students more formal DIAGNOSTIC TESTS when we want to know how much
they know so that we can decide what to do next - l i ke a doctor diagnosing a patient's
symptoms. We can give diagnostic tests at any stage during a course to help us plan
future lessons.

• A particular kind of diagnostic test is a PLACEMENT TEST . We give students placement

tests when tl1ey first arrive at a language-teaching institution so tlrnt we know what
level they should study at and which class they should be in.

• vVe give PROGRESS TESTS to see how students are getti ng on. Progress tests often
happen at the end of a week, a month or when a unit of work (perhaps in a
coursebook) is finished.

• We give students ACHIEVEMENT TESTS at the end of something, such as a semester or a

year. We want to know what they have learnt in ilie past few months - what tl1ey have
achieved.

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 Assessment and testing
. . .. ..... ... .. ... ...... ......... .. ...........

• PROFICIENCY TESTS m easure a student's language ability at a particular point in time.

Most public exams are like this. We spend a lot of teaching time preparing students
for these tests.

• PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT is based on work that the students have done during a course.
They keep examples of their work and this forms the basis of our assessment.

• Portfolio assessment is one example of CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT - where we keep a

record of students' work, giving marks for each piece of homework or mini-test, and
we use this to decide a final grade. This is the exact opposite of a profici ency test.
Some teachers prefer continuous assessment because students can feel very
uncomfortable in proficiency tests and may not do as well as they should. For this
reason, a combination of both can be much fairer.

Designing and making tests

Although as teachers we sometimes feel that we don't have a lot of influence on the
design of public exams, we often find ourselves writing progress and achievement tests.

• v\lhen we design tests ourselves, we have to decide on our ASSESSMENT CRITERIA.

\Ve need to know what it is we are testing. For example, a question such as Describe
the hydrologic cycle in no more than 2 50 words might be an appropriate task for CUL
ASSESSMENT -+11 0, but if we only want to test the students' use of language, then it is
unfair to test SUBJECT-SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE -+103 because some students may not know
(or may have forgotten) about water evaporation and rainfall .

• Tests need to have VAL I DITY. This means that if we tell the students that we are going
to assess their writing, we shouldn't make it dependent on a lot of reading because
they were not expecting a reading test. \Nhen we make achi evement tests, we need to
test things that the students have been learning (grammar, vocabulary, etc.), and we
have to be sure that we use the same kinds of test i tems and tasks as the ones they
have been using in their lessons.

• Before we start writing a test, we ·need to list exactly what it is we want to measure
and how to do it. For example, we can use SENTENCE REORDERING items if we want to
test SYNTAX (the order that words go in) -+1 or we can get the students to put pictures
in order to test comprehension of a stmy. However, putting pictures in order doesn't
test syntax, and sentence reordering doesn't test comprehension!

• We have to decide on the balance of items i n a test. Do we want all the questions to
be ' di screte poi nt' items (that is only testing one thing - such as a verb tense - a t a
time) or should we include more INTEGRATIVE items, where students have to read and
write, for example, or use a variety of language items? \!Vhat balance do we want to
have between grammar and vocabulary or between the four skills?

• We have to be extremely careful to ·write RUBRICS (instructions) that are easy for the
students/candidates to understand. If possible, eve1y question should have an example
so that the students have no doubt about what tl1ey are expected to do. For example:

Rewrite each sentence using the word given so tlrnt it has exactly the same meaning.

Example:
Mary went to bed late and as a resul t she overslept. (because)
Yllo.v-y oVfrSlepf bec.o.use She weV\f fo bed lo.fe .

• vVhen we write tests, it is a very good idea to give them to colleagues (or students
who are not going to do the tests later) to try out (PILOT) first. This will help us to
identify questions that don't work so tl1at we can make changes before we use the
test for real.

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 Types of test item
Test items and questions can be either direct or indirect. A D I RECT TEST ITEM asks the
candidate to perform the skill that is being tested (for example, make an ORAL
Test items PRESENTATION) . An INDI RECT TEST ITEM, on the other hand, examines the candidate's

and how to knowledge of individual items of language.

teach them
Direct test items
Direct test items come in many forms as the following examples show:
• In tests of speaking, students can be asked to do such things as give an oral presentation
�53, do an INFORMATION-GAP ACTIVITY �SO with one or more colleagues or take part
in an INTERVIEW.
• In tests of writing, students can be asked to do such things as write a letter or a report,
or compose a newspaper report or a BLOG entry.
• In tests of reading, students can be asked to transfer information from a written TEXT to
some kind of VISUAL ORGANISER �105 (a pie chart, a graph, etc.) or match texts with
pictures and headlines.
• In tests of listening, students can be asked to transfer the information they hear to
some visual organiser (a pie chart, graph, etc.) or they can put pictures (or events) in
the right sequence, or choose between different written summaries of what they hear.
We discuss GRADING tests like this in �90.

Indirect test items

There are many different kinds of indirect test items.
• For GAP FILLS, students have to write a word or words in BLANKS. For example:

Complete the following sentences with one word for each blank.
She had a quick shower, but she didn't __ any time to put on her makeup.

• In CLOZE texts, every sixth (or seventh, eight, etc.) word is a blank. The students have
to understand the whole text in order to fill i n the blanks. For example:

At school none of her (I) __ seemed to have remembered that (2) __ was her
birthday either and (3) __ made her miserable, but a� (4) __ the children in her
second ( 5)__ class were in a happy (6) __ . It cheered her up and (7) __ time
one of them . . .

• In MULTIPLE-CHOICE items, the students have to choose the correct (or perhaps the best)
from three or four alternatives. For example:

Choose the correct answer.

There were __ people outside.
a any b a lot of c much d none

• In TRUE/FALSE items, the students have to say whether a statement about a reading text
is true or false. For example:

Circle the correct answer.

Brittany went to bed at nine o'clock i n the evening. true I false

We can also add a third option, such as 'no information given in the text'.

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 Test items and how to teach tnem

• For JUMBLED SENTENCES tasks -71 , the srudents h ave to put sentences in the correct
order to make a coherent text, and in SENTENCE-REORDERING tasks they h ave to put
words in order to make correct sentences. For example:

Put the words in order to make correct sentences.

call I finished I for I left I no I she I sleeping I the I there I time I was I "When

• SENTENCE TRANSFORMATION exercises ask students to rewrite sentences in a slightly

different form. For example:

Rewrite the sentence using the word given.

VVhen she got home, Brittany was still tired so she lay down to have a bit of rest.
(because)

• PROOFREADING exercises ask students to identify the mistakes in certain sentences.

For example:

Underline the mistake in the following sentence.

Luckily, she doesn't wearing much makeup.

• Candidates can also be asked to do MATCHING tasks -748 and we can give them
-748 which test a range of competencies, such as listening, spelling,
D ICTATIONS
grammar, collocations, etc.

How to prepare students for tests

Students are often highly MOTIVATED -743 in exam classes because they have a clear goal
to aim for. We can use their enthusiasm to help them prepare for ACHIEVEMENT and
PROFICIENCY TESTS -788.

• We will give the students experience with the indirect test i tems that they are likely to
meet. We will also give tl1em strategies for dealing with M U LTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS.
For example, they should find the most obvious DISTRACTORS (the choices tlrnt are
wrong), eliminate them and then focus on the possibilities that remain and try to work
out what is being tested.
• We will discuss with our students general exam skills, such as how to prepare, how to
use PROCESS WRITING -757 techniques when writing and how to get exam timing right.
• We will let the students do MOCK EXAMS in real time. In other words, we will let them
take a complete exam (not the real one, of course) so that they get used to timing, etc.
• We have to be careful of exam WASHBACK (where teachers only teach the kind of things
that are in the test). Preparing students for an exam does not mean tl1at we have to
teach for the exam all the time. If we do this, we may damage the motivation that our
students bring to their lessons.
• Students can do direct tasks which are similar to ones they will meet in the test, but
we can also get them involved in any other activities and materials that will help them
to improve tl1eir English.
• We can get the students to ROLEPLAY -753 oral interviews (one student plays the
examiner).
• Students can try to write their ovvn exam items and give tl1em to their classmates.
This will give them a good idea of what is involved.
• Students can give each other sections of tests to do or they can work in PAIRS and
GROUPS -767 to discuss how to do them.

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 After the test
Writing and giving tests is the first part of a complex process. When we receive students'
papers, we have to mark and grade them.

Marking and
The trouble with marking and how to deal with it
grading tests
A good test has scorer RELIABILITY - in other words, whoever grades the test, the student
should get the same result. But this is not easy to achieve.

• It is easy to be SUBJECTIVE when we grade tests and exams, because that's what we do
in real life. Two people can go to a film and have totally different reactions to it.
Two people grading the same student's composition can also react differently.

• It will be much better if tl1e marking is OBJECTIVE - that is, if a candidate gets the same
grade whoever is marking the test. When tl1is happens, we call tl1e test RELIABLE, and
we can be confident that (provided we have designed it well) the test gives a clear
picture of a candidate's real ability and achievement.

• Many INDI RECT TEST ITEMS '89 can be objectively graded. For example, when
candidates answer well-designed MU LTI PLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS '89 only one answer is
correct. If the test is graded on a computer or by someone using an OVERLAY (which
can be put over a student's answer sheet and which only shows correct answers),
then we can have con fidence that the grading will be accurate.

• If we want to include DI RECT TEST ITEMS '89, such as speaking tests and longer
p ieces of writing, we will have to find other non-mechanical ways of trying to achieve
the same kinds of scorer reliability. ASSESSMENT SCALES l ike the examples below and on
page 1 99 can help to achi eve this.
• Whatever kind of marking we are using, the grading will always be more reliable if
more than one person is involved. For example, two scorers can check each otl1er's
grades, or two scorers can mark the same paper to see if the same work gets the
same grade.

• Y\There marking is subjective, we can still make grading more reliable if we organise
scorer training so that everyone is clear about what an 'N. grade is, or what a 'fail'
looks like, for example.

Using assessment scales

Y\Then we have thought about our ASSESSMENT CRITERIA (exactly what skills and sub-skills
we want to assess), we can design an assessment scale (or ·scales).

Example 1: a basic five-level assessment scale for writing

1 Very difficult to understand, with poor spelling and many vocabulary and
grammar mistakes.
2 Quite a lot of grammar and vocabulary mistakes, but the meaning is mostly clear.
3 The meaning i s clear although there are some grammar and vocabulary mistakes.
4 The meaning is clear and there are few mistakes of grammar and vocabulary.
5 The meaning i s clear and the writing i s almost mistake-free.

YVe can make more complex assessment scales which allow us to assess a wider range of
abifaies in direct test items.

198
 Marking and grading tests

Example 2: an assessment scale for giving oral presentations (with a total of 2 5 possible marks)

5 4 3 2 1

Content Interesting, Enough Quite interesting Occasionally Listeners will

informative, clear i nteresting at times interesting, but find it difficult to
information to unlikely to find anything
engage listeners engage l isteners mteresting here

Organisation Excellent Mostly clear and Easy to follow, Rather poorly Extremely
structure with easy to follow though a little organised and difficult to follow
good introduction chaotic incoherent because of
and conclusion extremely poor
organisation

Pronunciation Almost faultless Ve1y good Clearly Quite a few · Very poor
with no problems pronunciation intelligible but pronunciation pronunciation
for the listener with only some problems problems make and very difficult
occasional make listening a this speaker to understand
difficulties for little difficult difficult to
the listener understand

Grammar Use of varied Use of varied Good gramm a r Often good Many and varied
grammar v.rith no grammar with a use with some grammar use but grammar
mistakes few errors mistakes quite a few mistakes
mistakes

Vocabulary A wide use of A wide use of Good vocabulary A lot of So many

appropriate vocabula1y with use with some vocabulary vocabulary
vocabulary with occasional problems problems make mistakes that it is
no problems problems it difficult to very difficult to
understand understand

I nvolving the students

Students can be involved in marking and grading in a number of ways.

• We often use a grading system that has been decided at some stage in the past -
whether by the school, the subject co-ordinator or by ourselves. However, we can also
ask the students what grading system tl1ey would like us to use. Would they like A, B,
C,D grades or would they prefer a simple pass, fail , distinction marking system?
vVhen we encourage our students to write JOURNALS '59, we ask tl1em how much
comment they would like from us. We can do the same with tests.

• Students can mark their own tests if we give them dear criteria for doing so.

• Students can use CAN-DO STATEMENTS '41 , such as I can write a simple email to a1Tange a
meeting or I can nzake a two-minute oral presentation about a scientific topic to assess their
own abilities. Can-do statements can be included at the end of a week or month's
work, for example, or at the end of a COURSEBOOK '81 unit so that the students can

evaluate their own progress and ability levels.

• We can ask our students to take part in PEER EVALUATION (peer assessment) so that they
grade each other's tests.

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