HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT Giáo trình ENGLISH LANGUAGE TESTING AND ASSESSMENT (KIỂM TRA VÀ ĐÁNH GIÁ TRONG DẠY VÀ HỌC TIẾNG ANH) Mã số : Chủ biên : Th.S Nguyễn Văn Phi Thành viên : T.S Đinh Minh Thu Đơn vị : Khoa Ngoại ngữ Hải Phòng, tháng 4 năm 2022 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. viii COURSE INTRODUCTION. COURSE GENERAL INFORMATION. Class hour distribution.
Error! Bookmark not defined. OVERVIEW OF LANGUAGE TESTING AND ASSESSMENT. An Overview of Testing. Definition of a test.
Development and uses of language tests. Roles and scopes of testing. Kinds of tests. Guidelines for designing the test items effectively (for the whole test).
AN overview of Assessment. Definition of Assessment. Types of Assessment. Fitting assessment types to curriculum.
Online assessment tools. Characteristics of a good language test. Practical guidelines for developing good EFL test items. Guidelines for writing multiple-choice test items.
Guidelines for writing essay test items. Guidelines for grading essay tests. Steps for constructing a test. Planning the Test.
Designing the test. Trying Out the Test. Evaluating the Test. Grammar test types.
Grammar multiple-choice tests. Word changing items. Sentence Combining Exercises. Problems when designing test items.
Guidelines for writing a grammar test. Vocabulary test types. Multiple-choice Items (less difficult). Multiple-Choice items (more difficult).
More objective items. Problems when designing a vocabulary test. Guidelines for writing a vocabulary test. Designing test content.
Designing test expression. Designing test form. Selection of items. Multiple-choice hearing identification.
Word stress marking. Some more types. Problems when designing test items. Inappropriate level of difficulty.
Using trick questions. More than one best answer. Grammatical and spelling mistakes. Guidelines for designing an effective test.
Be appropriate for every student’s level. Avoid making mistakes in the test. Use clear instruction. Evaluate one or two items per sentence.
Use natural language. Avoid signalling the point being tested. Using visual materials. Role play test.
Group or Pair Activities. Problems when designing the speaking test items. Guidelines for designing a speaking test. Lower Teacher Participation.
Include Different Types of Speaking Tasks. Problems when designing writing test items. Guidelines for designing a writing test. Testing Phoneme Discrimination.
Discriminating Stress and Intonation. Understanding Sentences and Dialogues. Tasks Using Visual Materials. Tasks Involving Talks and Lectures.
Problems when designing a listening test. Recorder material- not easily available. Difficult to design test tasks. Difficult to select appropriate passages.
Using visual materials. Guidelines for designing a listening test. Reading test to activate and reinforce other skills. Reading to become a better reader.
Reading test to develop critical thinking skills. Reading test for enjoyment. True/ False Statements. Multiple choice questions.
Short answer/completion questions. Problems when designing a reading test. Guidelines for designing a reading test. Guidelines for Constructing True-False Items.
Guidelines for Constructing Multiple-Choice Items. 130 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TOEFL : Test of English as foreign language ESLPT : English as a Second Language Placement Test MLAT : Modern Language Aptitude Test EFL : English as foreign language MCQ : Multiple choice question T : Teacher Ss : Students vii PREFACE Testing and assessment are essential in a language course for they can inform teachers valuable information about where the students are in their learning and can affect what the teachers will cover next. They will help the teachers to decide if their teaching has been effective and help to highlight what needs to be reviewed. Any teacher of English should understand the importance of testing and assessment and the principles to design a good test.
Appropriate methods for testing and assessment help provide the students an adequate opportunity to demonstrate their achievements of the learning goals and grade them in a reliable way. Using theoretical knowledge about language testing and assessment and analyzing the effects of its implementation can help improve the English teaching quality. This book is the third one in a series of three that constitute a set of textbooks for language teacher training course at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Haiphong University. It is used for 4th year English majors.
It will guide students to discover practical techniques, guidelines and principles as well as problems and solutions related to English language testing and assessment with the purpose to help student teachers to apply educational principles and use testing methods in their future English classes. This book is organised into nine chapters covering different aspects such as overview of language testing and assessment, constructing a test, how to design a test to test the three linguistic elements and the four language skills. The contents are based on readings from a variety of source materials by methodologists and educators and provide an opportunity for students to challenge themselves in preparation for their future career. Although the book has been completed with all our dedication, there will still be limitations.
Therefore, we hope to receive constructive comments which can be sent to us via: Author 1: Nguyen Van Phi, email: phinv@dhhp.vn Author 2: Dinh Minh Thu, email: thudm@dhhp.vn viii COURSE INTRODUCTION 1. COURSE GENERAL INFORMATION Course name: English Language testing and assessment Code: MET 5225 Credit: 2 Course type: Compulsory Prerequisite: Language foundation Semester: 8 Credit hours: 30 class hours (20 hours of theory, 10 hours of practice, 60 hours of self-study) 2. COURSE OBJECTIVES After this course, students will be able to achieve the following competencies: - Understand the roles and scopes of testing, the different kinds of tests, the characteristics of a good language test - Discuss and analyse the guidelines for designing the test items, the practical guidelines for developing good EFL test items and different problems when designing test items as well as assessment types - Identify the steps for constructing a test, different types of testing grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and the four language skills - Apply the knowledge of testing into practice. LEARNING METHODS - Flipped classroom: + Students enjoy the combination between physical class and online resources + Students view lessons at home and master materials at school in collaboration with their peers or instructor.
- Active learning: + Students construct knowledge with all means of learning forms at an appropriate proportion as suggested in the learning pyramid below. + Students are provided authentic scholarly contents. ASSESSMENT Components Weighing Deliverables Attendance 20 % - Participation - Homework accomplishment Formative Assessment 30 % - Written mid-course test Summative assessment 50 % - Oral examination 2 CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW OF LANGUAGE TESTING AND ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES At the end of the chapter, the students will be able to: - Understand the roles and scopes of testing - Identify different kinds of tests - Discuss the guidelines for designing the test items - Analyse assessment types MATERIALS Bachman, L.
Language testing in practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices. Pearson Education Inc Fulcher, G.
Practical language testing. London: Hodder Education. Language testing and assessment: An advanced resource book. Testing English as a Second Language.
McGraw-Hill Book Company. Testing for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Le Van Canh.
Motivation As A Language Learning Condition Re-Examined: Stories Of Successful Vietnamese EFL Students: The project 2020. Le Van Canh. English language education innovation for the Vietnamese secondary school: The project 2020. Le Van Su.
Thong Tin Publishing House. Language learning in the age of satellite television. Oxford University press. National Foreign Language Project 2020.
Language competence-based Assessment. Seminar in Ho Chi Minh city. Educational Tests and Measurement in Education. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc Oller, J, & John W.
Language Tests at School. Longman Group Ltd. 3 Phạm Lan Anh. Innovation in testing and assessment.
Hanoi Capital University.com/blog/why-online-testing-tools-are-the-future-of- assessments/ https://www.com/essays/english-language/definitions-of-assessment-and- classroom-based-assessment-english-language-essay.php http://www.com/test-automation/ CONTENTS 1. AN OVERVIEW OF TESTING 1. Definition of a test A test is a sample of individual’s performance on basis of which inferences are made about the more general underlying competence of that individual. Language tests refer to any kind of measurement technique which aims at describing the test taker’s foreign language proficiency, for example, oral interview, listening comprehension task or free composition writing.
In other words, Language Testing is the practice and study of evaluating the proficiency of an individual in using a particular language effectively. Development and uses of language tests As a psychometric activity, language testing traditionally was more concerned with the production, development and analysis of tests. Recent critical and ethical approaches to language testing have placed more emphasis on the uses of language tests. The purpose of a language test is to determine a person’s knowledge and ability in the language and to discriminate that person’s ability from that of others.
Such ability may be of different kinds, achievement, proficiency or aptitude. Tests, unlike scales, consist of specified tasks through which language abilities are elicited. The term language assessment is used in free variation with language testing although it is also used somewhat more widely to include, for example, classroom testing for learning and institutional examinations: In the context of language teaching and learning, 'assessment' 4 refers to the act of collecting information and making judgments about a language learner's knowledge of a language and ability to use it. Roles and scopes of testing 1.
Roles of testing Formal tests and examinations are given to students at the end of a semester/school year or before starting a new course, etc. Teachers can also give regular informal tests to measure the students’ progress. Regular information tests play an important role in testing because: They tell the teacher what students have learned: The obvious point of classroom tests is to see what the students have learned after the completion of a lesson or unit. When the classroom tests are tied to effectively written lesson objectives, the teacher can analyze the results to see where the majority of the students are having problems with in their class.
These tests are also important when discussing student progress at parent-teacher conferences. identify student’s strengths and weaknesses: Another use of tests is to determine student’s strengths and weaknesses. One effective example of this is when teachers use pretests at the beginning of units in order to find out what students already know and where the teacher's focus needs to be. Furthermore, learning style and multiple intelligences tests help teachers learn how to best meet the needs of their students through instructional techniques.
what areas need to be taught in the future: from the test the teacher knows what should be focused in order for students to gain the best effects. They tell students how well they are progressing and where they need to focus their attention as learners: these will provide students opportunities to recognize and produce correct forms of the language and be able to learn from their errors and consolidate the pattern after test. encourage students to take their learning seriously, and give them a series of defined goals to aim towards. Scopes of testing In testing language, teachers should test linguistic elements (grammar, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation) to find out what students have learned and language skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing) to find out what students can do.
Kinds of tests 1. In terms of test purposes There are many kinds of tests; each test has specific purpose and a particular criterion to be measured. This part will explain about five kinds of tests based on specific purposes. Those tests are proficiency test, diagnostic test, placement test, achievement test and language aptitude test.
(i) Proficiency Test The purpose of proficiency test is to test global competence in a language. It tests overall ability regardless of any training they previously had in the language.