Assessment Criteria in FLT

Duration: Two hours

Name: Turmanova Assem

Instructions

(i) Please answer the questions in your own words not the words in the book or other
sources. You need to paraphrase. You will be penalized for using wording directly
from the book or other sources.
(ii) You are not allowed to use laptop or mobile phone during the exam.
(iii) You may use the textbook and/or paper copies of Power point slides from class sessions
or other handouts
(iv) Please write clearly or type in the space provided under each question.
(v) You must answer all the questions.

1. Define the terms ‘testing’ and ‘assessment’ and compare them. 5 points

The both of them are completely related.But “testing” is what you typically think of as a test
where you’re sitting down perhaps you’re in a time constrained context where you’re in an exam
or you have finished by the end of a class period often it’s a paper and pencil, they’re multiple –
choice etc. these are very typical characteristics of test. Assessment is a broader category where
a teacher forms a judgment about a student based on things that are observable to them.
Therefore, a test is a “product” that measures a particular behavior or set of objectives.
Moreover, assessment is seen as a procedure instead of a product.

2. Define five different types and purposes of language tests. Which ones do you apply in your
class and why? Give relevant examples.
10 points
Standardized test. Let’s assume that student in china wants to Canada to study. First, they will need
to write Toefl or an Ielts test. These are the names of the very big standardized test proficiency test. A
standardized test typically measures proficiency across a variety of students’ skills so they should
measure reading, writing, listening, speaking skills in a variety of different context, and they provide
a score that usully goes to the institution. When student is admitted to University, student makes all
arrangements, and at school or University, on the first day, at that point the student usually writes
another test and this test is called Placement Test. Typically a Placement test the stakes are little bit
lower I think it depends on perspective, the student may still think it’s high stakes, in the sense that
the test is used to place the student within that program. We place them in the proper ESL class. The
purpose of Diagnostic test is not to stream students into a specific level because that’s already be
done , but it is to determine individual strengths and weaknesses within that particular skill although
the student will be interested in the outcome of that particular diagnostic test, the other person who
really finds that information useful as a teacher, knows where the students’ stengths and weaknesses
are and begins to develop an idea of the kinds of thing his or her students really need, what things
need to be adressed over the course of the term how best to group students according to strenght and
weaknesses. Formative test: Around midterm it’s coming up test time again so they they may write
midterm test and we think midterms and other types of classroom test that are offered during the term
we think of those as formative tests. The goal of these particular test is to provide feedback for the
student . So the student can learn better. Student gets an idea oh his or her strengths and weaknesses
and some pathway forward feedback that they can use to improve their skills in that particular area.
Achievment test or summative assessment test and goal there is to measure how much student has
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learnt throughout the course of the term. So it’s a very evaluative type of test. The goal is not really
to form students experience or to encourage students proficiency. It’s not a future looking type of
test, it is a test that provides a snapshot of proficiency of this student particular time and so that we
call a summative test

3. What are the principles of assessment? Explain why it is important to follow them. 10 points
To have an effective test teacher should know theses 5 principles of assessment. They are: 1)
Validity- It is about a test should test what it’s supposed to test. A test should test what you’ve
taucht. There should be very clear link between things that you’ve taucht in class and the test you
develop the test should look quite similar the that test activities and test items should look quite
similar to what your students have done in class. And if there is a good match between what
you’ve taucht and what you’re testing then we call that content validity.
2) Reliability is related ro the consistency of your test and like validity reliability is multifaceted
Student-related reliability – All of the factors that can affect a student’s state of mind before
writing a test which may result in inaccurate test scores. Student reliability factors: not feeling
well, fight with a loved one, room temperature, noise.
Rater reliability – How consistently the teacher scores the test. Rater reliability factors: Hungry,
tired, forgot marking criteria, discoureged, biased.
Test administration reliability
Test paper reliability
Consistent in two or more administrations
Gives clear directions for scoring / evaluation
Has uniform rubric for scoring
Contains items that are unambiguous to the test-taker
3) Authenticity
Test materials match closely to real world application. So we want to have a good match
between the test and what we call real-world activity, that students may engage in once they
leave that classroom. Authenticity of language should be as natural as possible. Teaching topics
should match contexts that students will encounter outside the classroom.
4) Practicality refers to the logistical, administrative issues involved in testing and scoring an
assessment tool. It refers to the economy of time, effort and money in testing. In other words,
a test should be:
 Easy to design
 Easy to administer
 Easy to mark
 Easy to interpret (the results)
Relates to test logistics such as devolopment time, scoring time, feedback, delivery and cost.
5) Washback Feedback given to students following a test or assessment. You need to consider
all the ways of giving feedback when you are thinking about washback.

4. Define Summative and formative assessment and give your examples. Provide examples from your
own experience as a teacher or as a learner? 10 points
We use formative assessment to improve instruction and provide student feedback. Formative
assessment are used continuously throughout lesson unit. They serve as a gauge so students
know where they need improvement.
Summative assessments are used to measure student’s competency. Summative assessment are
used at the end of the lesson unit. SA gauge progress of goal and benchmarks.
As I am a teacher of the secondary school, I use formative assessment during the every lesson,
because at the end of the each unit and term we will have summative assessments. Of course, we
should support our students to be ready to pass the test without some obstacles and difficulties.

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 5 What are test specifications and why do you need them? 5
points
A test specification is a document determining what functions and features of the software are to
be tested during the test procedure, in what way, how often they must be verified, etc.
All the project test specifications are included in the test plan.
Why do we need specification?1 Provide blueprint for the test 2 Ensure fairness , validity,
reliability 3 for face validity – test forms, items looks similar 4 Write multiple test forms ,
Engage multiple item write

6. What are the stages of designing listening and reading tests. What kind of tasks do you use in each
stage of designing them? 5
points
Both listening and reading are receptive skills, but listening can be more difficult than reading
because: different speakers produce the same sounds in different ways, e.g. dialects and accents,
stress, rhythm, intonation, etc.;
In order to make the process of teaching listening and reading comprehension easier, they
are divided into 3 stages: pre-listening, while-listening, post-listening stages.
I can say that I use all these stages at my lesson. When I take something new I actually
begin with Pre listening and pre-reading tasks. For instance, to introduce the new or key
words which they might listen for the first time, putting some questions in advance in
order to make students make prediction or think. They can do gap filling task for while-
listening or multiple choice.
7. Define holistic and analytic scales for assessing productive skills. Discuss advantages and
disadvantages of each scale.
5 points
When testing productive language skills, we need to use holistic scoring guideline, or analytical scoring
guideline
Holistic scale for assessing speed up marking process, consistent marking across multiple students, yield a
single score, easier to create than analytic rubrics, useful for high volume tests and disadvantages of holistic
rubrics are collapse a lot of criteria into a single grade, difficult to assess students accurately, don’t provide
specific feedback on strengths and weaknesses, inconsistent across multiple scores. Analytic rubrics provide
very specific feedback to students, subskills can be weighted differently, produce more accurate and consistent
scores, useful for research purposes.
Disadvantages of Analytic rubrics are more time required to score student texts, harder to develop, difficult to
avoid descriptor overlap and ambiguity, may not allow you to assess the overall effect of a text.

8. Discuss types of feedback you learned in the classroom. Which ones do you use in your class? Give
relevant examples from your experience.
5 points
Motivational feedback for motivating students for learning, the goal is to encourage and support the learners.
Evaluative feedback is for evaluation student’s success. It’s for measuring student’s achievement with a score
or a grade.
Descriptive feedback directs the students how to correct their reasoning and gaps.
The goal of Effective feedback to improve learning by moving student reasoning to the next level.
So as Feedback is an ongoing process of goal setting I always use all kinds of feedback during my
lesson. Especially descriptive and motivational feedback for gathering evidence about student learning
and providing instruction that makes clear next action to improve performance. There is no doubt that
Effective feedback can increase student’s effort and outcomes, lead to more effective learning
strategies and improve student’s self-regulation.

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9. The following writing task was given to year 1 business students at a university.

These days many people prefer to online dating to traditional face-to-face one. What’s your view?
Which one do you prefer?

Write an essay.

What do you think of the task? Explain your view drawing on your reading. Would you set this task as it is or
would you modify? Why?

20 points
I suppose it would be better if I changed the title of the essay. The main objective of giving such
essay writing tasks to students is to improve their writing skills. When the aim is known, you’ll
have to do some work on topics you find interesting for your student. An essay title bears great
importance, which is why a wrong headline choice can make or break the quality of
writing. And in these situation we should take into account all the principles of assessment. So,
the modifying the task would be better for these kind of students.

10. A foreign translation company has entered the Kazakhstani market. They would like to hire 10
employees. They have asked you, as a language expert, to help them with examining their candidates’
English languages skills.

Explain what sort of assessment tasks (Type of test) you would set to assess candidates’ English language skills.
Provide examples of the tasks.

I would obviously take Standardized test such as Toefl or an Ielts test to define their proficiency. Since
it’s a foreign translation company the candidates should have proficiency level of English. And test
taker should provide all the neccesary tasks for measuring all the skills (writing, reading, listening and
speaking) in a variety of different context.

25 points

Total 100 points