Language Testing and Assessment – Script

Principles of language assessment

1. Practicality:
This principle refers to the time and cost constraints during the construction and
administration of an assessment instrument.
Meaning that the test should be economical to provide. The format of the test should be
simple to understand.
Based on the definition above, it can be concluded that practically defines in terms of
cost, time, administration, scoring/evaluation.
A. Cost: A good test should not be too expensive to conduct. A teacher should avoid
conducting a test that requires an excessive budget.
B. Time: A good test should not be too long or too short to be finished by the
students.
C. Administration: A good test should not be too complicated or difficult to conduct
and it should be simple to administer.
D. Scoring/evaluation: A good test should be followed by something to make it easy
to score like rubrics of scoring and key answer.
2. Reliability: Brown (2010: 27) said that a reliable test is consistent and dependable.

For example, a student will get the same score if he or she takes the test, possibly with a
different examiner, on a Monday morning or a Tuesday afternoon.

There are some issues related to reliability as stated by Brown. They are:

A. Student-related Reliability

The most common learner-related issue in reliability is caused by temporary illness,

fatigue, a "bad day" anxiety, and other physical or psychological factors.

Which may make an observed score deviate from one's true score.
For example, when a student is not in a good mood because of his “bad day” while taking
a test, then it can affect his score.
B. Rater Reliability
Rater reliability deals with the scoring process. It can be caused by human error and
subjectivity.

C. Test Administration Reliability

Test administration reliability concerns the situation and condition in which the test is
administered.

For example, when a teacher wants to conduct a listening test, he should prepare a room
that is comfortable for the listening activity.

D. Test Reliability
Brown said that sometimes the nature of the test can cause measurement errors (2010:
29). -> It means that test reliability refers to the test itself.
For example, when the teacher conducts the test with multiple choice items and one
question has more than one correct answer or when the teacher uses ambiguous sentences
in the test then it can affect the score.

3. Validity

As stated by Brown (2010: 30), a valid test measures exactly what it proposes to measure.

For example, when the students are given a reading test about human respiration, a valid
test will measure their reading ability such as identifying general or specific information
in the text, not their prior knowledge (biology) about human respiration.

Brown (2010: 30-35) proposed five ways to establish validity. They are content validity,
criterion validity, construct validity, consequential validity, and face validity.

A. Content Validity: Content validity refers to the correlation between the content of
the test and the language skill, structure, etc.

For example: When the teacher wants to assess students’ speaking ability in a
conversational setting, then the teacher asks the students to answer paper-and-pencil
multiple-choice questions requiring grammatical judgments. It is not achieved content
validity. The teacher should conduct a test that requires the students actually to speak to
their friends.

B. Criterion Validity: Criterion validity emphasizes the relationship between the

test score and the outcome. It usually falls into concurrent validity and predictive
validity.
- Concurrent Validity:

A test has concurrent validity if its results are supported by other concurrent
performances beyond the assessment itself.

For example:

The validity of a high score on the final exam of a foreign language course will be
verified by the actual proficiency in the language.

- Predictive Validity:
Predictive validity is to measure and predict a test taker’s likelihood of future success.

For example: the TOEFL test is intended to know how well someone will perform the
capability of his English in the future.

C. Construct Validity: Construct validity refers to concepts or theories which are

underlying the usage of a certain ability.

When the teacher conducts a speaking test, the scoring analysis for the test includes
several factors in the final score: pronunciation, fluency, grammatical accuracy,
vocabulary use, and sociolinguistics appropriateness. The justification of these five
factors lies in the theoretical construct that claims those factors to be major components
of oral proficiency. But if he conducts a test that evaluated only pronunciation and
grammar, he could be justifiably suspicious about the construct validity of that test.
D. Consequential Validity: Consequential validity refers to the consequences of
using a particular test for a particular purpose
A good test must give positive consequences for the students. So, the teacher should
consider the effect of assessment on students’ motivation, independent learning, study
habits, and attitude toward school work.

E. Face Validity: face validity is students view the assessment as fair, relevant, and
useful for improving learning.
Students may feel that a test isn’t testing what it’s supposed to test, and this might affect
their performance and consequently affect the result of the test. To overcome students’
perceptions, the teacher as a test constructor has to consider:

 Students will be more confident if they face a well-constructed, expected format

with a familiar task.
 Students will be less anxious if the test can be accomplished within an allotted
time limit.
 Students will be optimistic if the items of the test are clear and uncomplicated.
 Students will find it easy to do the test if the directions are clear.
 Students will be less worried if the test is related to their course work.
4. Authenticity
The fourth major principle of language assessment is authenticity. It deals with the
“real word”.
Teachers should conduct a test with the test items likely to be applied in the real
context of daily life.
Brown (2010: 37) proposes considerations that might be helpful to present
authenticity in a test. They are:
 The language in the test is as natural as possible.
 Topics are meaningful (relevant, interesting) for the learner.
 Some thematic organization to items is provided, such as through a storyline or
episode.
 Tasks represent, or closely approximate, real-world tasks.
5. Washback
 Washback refers to the influence, either positive or negative, that an exam has on the
way in which students are taught.
In addition, Hughes in Brown (2010: 37) said that washback is the effect of testing on
teaching and learning.
Washback can be concluded that washback refers to the effect of testing on the
teaching and learning process and it has two sides; positive and negative.
A. Positive Washback

Positive washback has a beneficial influence on teaching and learning for both the
teachers and the students.

For example: When the teacher conducts a daily paper-based test and asks the students to
answer some questions after they finish their job they will submit the paper to the teacher
then the teacher checks their job. After that, the teacher not only gives a score but also
gives feedback or comment about their strengths and their weaknesses on test
performance in order to give motivation to the students.

B. Negative Washback
A test that has a negative washback is considered to have a negative influence on
teaching and learning.

For example: When the teacher conducts a daily paper-based test and asks the students to
answer some questions after they finish their job they will submit the paper to the teacher
then the teacher checks their job and only gives them a score without any comments. In
reality, a letter grade or numerical score is not enough. The students need feedback from
their teacher.

Conclusion: Based on the explanation of the principles of language assessment above, we

can conclude that a test is good if it contains practically, high reliability, good validity,
authenticity, and positive washback. The teachers should apply these five principles in
conducting a test on their teaching and learning process.