LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

1 Assessment is an ongoing process of collecting information about a given

object of interest according to procedures that are systematic and substantively
grounded.

Measurement is the process of quantifying individual’s characteristics according

to specific rules and procedures.

Test is a measurement instrument designed to elicit a specific sample of

individual’s behavior.

Evaluation is the systematic process of gathering information for the purpose of

making decisions.

2 Types of assessment:

Mode: oral-written

Intention: formal – informal

Function: formative- summative

Interpretation: norm referenced- criterion referenced

Administration: school based- large scale

__informal: incidentals unplanned, coaching, impromptu feedback, on

homework, non-judgmental.

__formal: systematic planned, graded, usually written, assignments and tests,

judgmental.

3 Functions of assessment:

__formative: assessment for learning, focus on process, while working.

__summative: assessment of learning, focus on product, upon the completion of

work.

4 Principles of assessment:

A- Reliability: assessment should yield same results:

 -student related reliability when the test is taken by a different group with
same characteristics it should have the same results.
-rater reliability teacher use criteria when scoring the results ex 3 points
for grammar…
-test administration reliability different situation should have same results.
-test reliability different situation, learner, teachers should have same
results.

B- Validity: assessment should assess what is meant to assess.

-content validity is to assess what has been taught.
-construct validity is to assess the skill that is meant to assess for example
reading, writing and respect theories of assessment.
-criterion validity is when the test helps achieving the teaching goals.
-face validity is that the assessment should look achievable

C- Practicality: a practical assessment is doable.

-not excessively expensive
-can be done within time constraints
-can be easily scored
-easy to administer

D- Authenticity: simulating real world

-natural language
-contextualized items
-meaningful topics
-tasks simulating real life

E- Washback: the effect of assessment on teaching and learning

-enhancing practicality enhances regular testing
-importance given to tests reflects time of preparation
-elements assessed often get more attention

Why do we assess: to know if students can apply what they have learned in
authentic situation

What do we assess: we assess learning and we evaluate results in terms of some

set of criteria?
How should we assess: day to day observation, tests and quizzes, project work,
portfolios, rating scale

Why it is important to assess: to find out what students know, what students can
do, how well they can do it, how they feel about their work

6 Types of evaluation: Richard (2001) identified three types of evaluation.

-formative evaluation is an ongoing formal or informal evaluative process in

which students are provided with various types of quizzes and tests which serves
as a means for students learning

- illuminative evaluation is employed to find out how different aspects of a

program are implemented and this type of evaluation is a one way to seek to
have a deeper understanding of the process of teaching and learning that occur
in the program

-summative evaluation, the kind of evaluation most teachers and administrators

are familiar with, is concerned with determining the effectiveness, efficiency
and to some extent the practicality of a language program.

7 an assessment can be formative if it focuses on the process of learning or it can

be summative when it is used to measure student learning outcomes at the end of
an education cycle.

8 The differences between assessment and evaluation

Assessment: is the gathering of information about something such as student

performance, is information, is qualitative, pinpoints specific strengths and
weaknesses, is diagnostic summative and formative, is most useful to students
and teachers, focuses on individual students, is an educational measure, is
referenced by criterion.

Evaluation: is the act of setting a value on the assessment information, is a

judgment, is quantitative, rank and sort individuals within groups, is only
summative, is most useful to parents and administrations, focuses on the group,
is administrative measure, is referenced by norm

___norm referenced: an assessment used to compare students’ performance

with their peers’ performance

___criterion referenced: an assessment employed to compare students’

performance with the course content
9 Functions of assessment:

-diagnostic: tells us what the student needs to learn

-formative: tells us how the student is doing as work progresses

-summative: tells us how the student did at the end of unit or task

10 Comparison between the three types of assessment

-assessment for learning: is an ongoing diagnostic and formative

-assessment as learning: is ongoing involve student self and peer
assessment
-assessment of learning: occurs at the end of year or at key stages it is
summative it is for grading and report cards

PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

1 Reliability is the extent to which a test produces consistent scores at different

administrations to the similar group of examinees (student related reliability,
rater reliability, test administration reliability, test reliability), a test is reliable if
it is consistent in its conditions across two or more administrations, it gives clear
directions for scoring or evaluation, it contains items or tasks that are
unambiguous to the test takers

2 Validity is the degree of correspondence between the test content and the
content of the material to be tested ex: a valid test of reading ability actually
measures the reading ability itself not previous knowledge (content validity,
criterion validity, construct validity, face validity)

-----Brown and Abeywickrama (2010, p.30) “indicated that in order to achieve

validity a test should measure only what it claims to measure, rely as much as
possible on empirical evidence, offer meaningful and useful information about a
test takers’ ability, be supported by theoretical rationale..”

3 Practicality refers to the logistical, practical and administrative issues involved

in the process of constructing, administering and rating an assessment
instrument,(resources: cost, time, scoring, evaluation, administration)

4 Authenticity is defined as the degree of correspondence of the characteristics

of a given language test task to the features of a target language task. Brown and
Abeywickrama (2010) provided characteristics of a test that has authenticity as
follows: the language in the test is natural as possible- items are contextualized
rather than isolated- topics are meaningful relevant and interesting- tasks
represent real world tasks.

5 Washback according to Brown and Hudson is the effect of testing and

assessment on the language teaching that is related to it.

-positive washback takes place when the test measure the same kinds of
materials and skill stated in the objectives and taught in the courses ex: the
consequence of many reading comprehension is a possible development of the
reading skills.

-negative washback is when tests and testing techniques are at variance with the
objectives of the course. Tests which have negative washback is considered to
have negative influence on teaching and learning ex: taking an English course to
be trained in four language skills however the language test does not test those
skills

11 Tests

Brown and Abeywickrama (2010) saw tests as a way of measuring a person’s

ability knowledge or performance in a specific domain.

Types of test

Proficiency tests are designed to measure people’s ability in a language

regardless of any training they may have had in that language ex: TOFEL test,
FCE, CPE.

Achievement tests measure how successful individual student, group of students,

or the courses themselves have been achieving objectives.

Diagnostic tests identify learner’s strengths and weaknesses.

Placement tests used to assign students to classes at different levels.

Aptitude tests predict the success in language learning.

ASSESSMENT TYPES

Brown and Hudson identified three basic assessment types:

1 Selected response assessments provide students with language material and

ask them to select the correct answer among a limited set of choices ex: true
false, multiple choices, matching, and disadvantages: difficult to construct, does
not require students to produce language and advantages: scoring is fast easy
and objective, work well for testing receptive skills such as reading and listening.

2 Constructed response assessments require students to produce language

through writing speaking or doing something else ex fill in, short answer,
performance assessment, interviews, and essay tests. Advantages are: suitable
for measuring receptive skills such as listening and reading and knowledge of
vocabulary. Performance requires students to accomplish approximations of real
life authentic tasks using the productive skills of speaking writing but also
reading… and advantages of performance assessments can elicit relatively
authentic communication in testing situations, disadvantages can be relatively
difficult to construct and time consuming to administer.

3 Personal response assessments require students to produce language to

communicate what they want to communicate ex: conference, portfolio, self and
peer assessments. Advantages provide personal or individualized assessment,
can be directly related to and integrated in the curriculum. Disadvantages
difficult to design organize and score objectively.

CONCLUSION

A combination of both formative and summative assessments may also be a

balanced approach to evaluating students’ progress, especially for second
language learners, as no test can possibly measure all areas of skills and
knowledge that learners have mastered.

INTRODUCTION

Language assessment is a field of study under the umbrella of Applied

Linguistics. Its main focus is the assessment of first second or other languages in
the School College or university. Assessment is an ongoing process that
encompasses a much wider domain, whenever a student responds to a question
offers a comment or tries out a new word or structure the teacher subconsciously
makes an assessment of the student’s performance.