VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 38 2K 28 2 28 2K ok AN EVALUATION ON THE VALIDITY OF ENGLISH TESTS USED FOR ENGLISH 10 AT SOME HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE MIDDLE AND NORTH OF VIET NAM, FROM HA TINH TO HA NAM ĐÁNH GIÁ TÍNH HIỆU LUC CUA CÁC BAI KIEM TRA TIẾNG ANH DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 Ở MỘT SO TR ONG THPT MIEN TRUNG VA MIEN BẮC VIET NAM; TUHA TINH DEN HA NAM MA THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: ; SUPERVISOR: Dr. HA CAM TAM HA NOI, 2009 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 38 2K 28 2 28 2K ok AN EVALUATION ON THE VALIDITY OF ENGLISH TESTS USED FOR ENGLISH 10 AT SOME HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE MIDDLE AND NORTH OF VIET NAM, FROM HA TINH TO HA NAM ĐÁNH GIÁ TINH HIỆU LUC CUA CÁC BAI KIEM TRA TIENG ANH DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 Ở MỘT SO TR ONG THPT MIEN TRUNG VA MIEN BẮC VIET NAM; TUHA TINH DEN HA NAM MA THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: HA NOI, 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Scope of the study. ®YnNM ®Dnm Aims of the study Methods of the study Research questions Organization of the study DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
Basic concepts of testing 1. Kinds of achievement tests 11 1. Final achievement tests 11 1. Progress achievement tests 12 1.
Characteristics of a good language test 13 1. Criterion-related validity 18 VI 1. Souces of invalidity 21 1. Test items for phonetics, structures and vocabulary 22 1.
The test items types used to evaluate phonetics, structures 23 and vocabulary 1. Syllabus Objectives on language components 24 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.Analytical framework for data analysis 29 2. Data Analysis and Discussion 31 2. Content validity of the tests used 31 2.
Content validity of 45 minute written tests 31 2. Content validity of 15 minute written tests 36 2. Content validity of final written tests 4 2. Construct validity of the tests used 46 2.
Face validity of the tests used 53 CONCLUSION 3. Limitations and Suggestions for further studies 59 vil REFERENCES 61 APPENDIX: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE 64 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The test item types 24 Table 2: Syllabus Objectives 25 Table 3: Format of 45 minute tests and final tests 28 Table 4: Specification for fourty five minute tests 32 Table 5. The contents tested in the fourty five minute tests 34 Table 6: The contents tested in the fifteen minute tests 37 Table 7: Test Specification for final written tests 41 Table 8: The contents of language components in the final tests 43 Table 9: Specification for language components 46 Table 10: Teachers’ opinions on the investigated tests 54 Table 11: Testing techniques 57 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study English has played an integral role in increasing the development of science, technology, culture and international relations.
This fact has resulted in the growing demand for English language learning and teaching in many parts of the world. In addition, the world-wide globalization process has confined English the most widely used means of international communication. The need to master English to access to information and interactions with each other is increasingly growing in many parts of the world. English teaching is undoubtly the ultimate capacity-building tool.
Fully recognizing the importance of this global language, Vietnamese Ministry of Education has encouraged and required pupils of Secondary Schools to learn it as a compulsory subject during at least seven years. English is also a compulsory subject in the Higher Secondary graduation examination. To evaluate and assess the English learning and teaching process, testing is apparently employed as an important and powerful tool. This is because ever since language began to be taught in formal settings, the development of tests to assess the learner's performance has been an integral part of language learning and teaching process.
Language testing, then, is central to language teaching. Therefore, It is also widely accepted that testing plays a significant role in the process of learning and teaching foreign languages. The main purpose of language testing is to provide opportunities for learning, both for the students who are being tested and for the professionals who are administering the tests. Through the tests students can learn from the work they do with the teacher, and by themselves in preparation for the tests, the opportunities arising during the tests for developing what they know and what they can do, especially the feedback which they receive after the tests, both from their own reflection and from professionals who have monitored their performance on the tests.
The teachers can pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in the learned abilities of the students and gain the information about the progress the students are making or what the students are likely to be able to do with the 2 language in a target context or what the students know and what they do not know (both explicitly and implicitly) about the target language. In general, a language test can be a “sample language behaviour and infer general ability in the language learnt”. From the results of the tests and depending on different kinds of tests with different purposes as well, the teacher can infer a certain level of language competence of his students in such different areas as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, or speaking, listening , writing and reading. Lanwerys & Seanlon (1969) contends in their book “testing is an important tool in educational research and for programme evaluation, and may even throw light on both the nature of language proficiency and language learning”.
“Language testing is a form of measurement. It is so closely related to teaching that we cannot work in testing without being constantly concerned with teaching” (Heaton, 1988:5). Therefore, it is undeniable that the most effective and fastest way to check students' understanding is testing. Besides, thanks to testing, teachers can evaluate the effectiveness of the used syllabus or its contents, objectives, methods and to identify, locate the difficult areas that their pupils are being confronted with in learning process through tests.
For the past ten years or so, there have been a number of changes in the practice of English teaching in Viet Nam tertiary education. Some regard methodology, from Grammar translation method to Communicative approach. Some involve in course books. Some are concerned with technology, from traditional tape recorders to modern LCD projectors.
Some are related to testing. For example, at Higher Secondary Schools in recent years there is a shift in testing from Subjective tests to Objective tests, which has great effects on teaching and learning process. Therefore, in testing pupils’ progress, teachers tend to design more objective tests and many mid-term or final tests are multiple choice questions. This is considered as a good preparation for students to perform well in the entrance university tests which exists in multiple choice questions.
However, the problem is that the English 10 is one of the three new course books of Ministry of Education which focus on improving the four skills reading, writing, speaking and listening and help students to consolidate their grammar in the Language Focus part. Thus, multiple choice questions seem to fail to test pupil’s progress accurately. The question arising is that whether the tests used at High Schools test what students are supposed to acquire 3 according to the objectives of the textbook. This is also one of the major reasons why I carried the research on validity.
In addition, Test researchers and developers have admitted that validity are critical for tests and referred to as integral measurement qualities. Because this quality provides major justification for using test score numbers as a basic for making inferences or decisions (Bachman and Palmer, 1996:19). From educative perspectives that both teachers and students should have their voice heard about instructional content, mode of syllabus delivery, and assessment. As analyzed above, validity is an indispensable quality of all good tests.
Opinions from test takers and test raters, therefore, are essential and important to the process of test construction. More importantly, it is impossible for test writers to try in vain to increase the validity of a reliable test due to the features of test items that constructs it. From the outset of test construction, test validity should be of most essential focus of all. Heaton (1988:60) argued that "face validity can provide not only a quick and reasonable guide but also a balance to too great of concern with statistical analysis." He stated that the students’ motivation is maintained if a test has good face validity and most students will try harder if the test looks sound.
Thus, the face validity plays a certain role in any test and it is also of great concern in this thesis. Moreover, the emphasis on test validity is also confirmed in Hughes (1989) that, "the greater a test's content validity is, the more likely it is to be an accurate measure of what it is to measure." To put it in another way, if major areas in the test specification are not identified or not represented, the test is said to be inaccurate. Furthermore, such an inaccurate test is likely to have harmful backwash effect because those are not presented or tested will probably be ignored in teaching and learning. Bachman ( 1990: 289) also insists that :" The most important quality to consider in the development, interpretation and use of language tests is validity, which has been described as a unitary concept related to the adequacy and appropriateness of the way we interpret and use test scores." In general , the reasons discussed here are regarded as a strong impetus that initiates this thesis into investigating the validity of the achievement tests at Higher Secondary Schools from Ha Tinh to Ha Nam.
Some studies and researches have been done in some particular schools to design an English achievement test for the 10th form pupils as a Case Study such as the study by Ta Thi Minh Hien (2005). However, there has not been any study on investigation into and evaluation on tests used for 10th form pupils High Schools in The Middle and in the 4 North of Viet Nam. While it is undeniable that good evaluation of tests can help us measure skills and knowledge of pupils more accurately. For example, test analysis can help us remove weak items even before we record the results of the tests.
Another reason for the selection of this research topic lies in the fact that language testing at Higher Secondary Schools has not been paid enough attention to. As a teacher, I have been involved in designing, administering and marking any kinds of English tests. Yet I have also witnessed neither comprehensive nor systematic evaluation nor research on the effectiveness and appropriateness of these tests. No formal discussions or seminar on test construction or test methods have been carried out.
There is a lack of a language test item bank, a professionals testing committee, who judges the quality of the tests and takes the responsibility for the given tests. For the above-mentioned reasons, as a learner, a teacher, and a beginning researcher of English, the author has been encouraged to conduct the study entitled: “An evaluation on the validity of English tests used for English 10 at Higher Secondary Schools in the middle and north of Viet Nam, from Ha Tinh to Ha Nam” with a view to evaluate the validity of the tests used for pupils at Higher Secondary School. It is hoped that the study will benefit the author as well as teachers at Higher Secondary Schools and those who are concerned with language testing in general and English testing techniques at Higher Secondary School in particular. SCOPE OF THE STUDY.