MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ---------- VO THI DIEU HIEN A STUDY ON TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION AND PRACTICE IN DESIGNING ACHIEVEMENT TESTS AT SOME UPPER - SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCE MA THESIS IN EDUCATION HUE, 2012 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ---------- VO THI DIEU HIEN A STUDY ON TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION AND PRACTICE IN DESIGNING ACHIEVEMENT TESTS AT SOME UPPER - SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCE FIELD OF STUDY: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.10 MA THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: PHAM HOA HIEP, D. HUE, 2012 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ---------- VÕ THỊ DIỆU HIỀN ĐIỀU TRA NHẬN THỨC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG VÀ THIẾT KẾ CÁC BÀI KIỂM TRA ĐỊNH KÌ MÔN TIẾNG ANH Ở MỘT SỐ TRƢỜNG THPT TẠI TỈNH THỪA THIÊN HUẾ CHUYÊN NGÀNH: LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.10 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ GIÁO DỤC HỌC NGƢỜI HƢỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. PHẠM HÒA HIỆP HUẾ, 2012 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates and have not been punished elsewhere.
Author ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Pham Hoa Hiep for his trusted guidance, generous help and deep encouragement during the time I was working on this research paper. I would also like to express my profound gratitude for their enthusiastic encouragement and invaluable advice To Dr Le Pham Hoai Huong, Dr Truong Bach Le and PhD Truong Vien, in the early stage of the development of this study. My sincere thanks go to my peer students in the MA in the Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching course in the academic year 2010-2012.
The data collection for my research paper would not have impossible without the support of the teachers at Nguyen Hue, Hai Ba Trung, Cao Thang, Dang Tran Con, Phu Bai, Nguyen Sinh Cung, Binh Dien, An Luong Dong, Huong Vinh. I thus owe them a great deal. Last but not least, I can hardly find words to express my gratitude to my family and my special friends who are always by my side, encouraging me and most importantly, giving my more inspirations to finish the thesis with a sense of satisfaction. TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages SUB COVER PAGE STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS .1 LIST OF ABBREVIATION .5 LIST OF TABLES .6 LIST OF CHARTS .7 LIST OF FIGURES.
Background of the research. Aims of the research. The scope of the research. The significance of the research.
Structure of the thesis .11 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of testing. Purposes of language tests. Qualities of a good test.
Criterion- related validity. Kinds of tests. Objective and Subjective tests. Direct and Indirect tests.
Discrete point and Integrative tests. Aptitude, achievement and proficiency tests. Criterion-referenced and Norm- referenced tests. The relationship between testing and teaching.
The relationship between testing and teaching. Some general descriptions about language teaching and testing in upper- secondary schools in Thua Thien Hue province. Designing classroom language tests. Some practical steps to test construction.
Drawing up test specifications. Devising test tasks. Scoring, grading and giving feedback. The meaning of the score.
Objective and subjective scoring. Overview of achievement tests. Achievement test approaches. Designing achievement tests.
The situation of designing achievement tests at some upper-secondary schools in Thua Thien Hue province. How to design an effective achievement test. Identifying the test objectives. Determining test items.
Writing questions for the test. Estimating the limited time for the test. Preparing the blueprint. Determining the score procedure .43 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DICUSSION.
Findings and discussion. Teachers‟ perceptions on achievement test. Teachers‟ perception on achievement test. Teachers‟ opinion about the criteria of a good achievement test.
Teachers‟ practice on designing achievement tests. The time for taking achievement tests. Purposes of designing an achievement test. What to do before designing an achievement test.
Test techniques used in achievement tests. Number of test items in an achievement test. Teachers‟ procedure of constructing achievement tests. Teachers‟ feedback on students‟ tests.
Difficulties in designing achievement tests. What should be done to design achievement tests in a more effective way .70 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS. Summary of the findings. What are teachers‟ perceptions of designing achievement tests for students at some upper-secondary schools in Thua Thien Hue province?.
How effective are the achievement tests already designed and used by teachers?. For educational administrators .75 REFERENCES APPENDICES 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATION DOET : Department of Education and Training IELTS : International English Language Test System GMAT : Graduate Management Admission Test TLU : Target Language Use TOEFL : Tests of English as a Foreign Language N : Number of participants % : Percentage 5 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Methods of data collection and participants .1: Occasions for taking achievement tests .2: What to do before designing achievement tests .3: Skills and language areas tested in achievement tests .4: Number of test items in a 45-minute multiple choice test .5: Number of test items in a 45- minute non- multiple choice test .6: Procedure of designing achievement tests .7: Reasons for not grading students‟ achievement .62 6 LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: Teachers‟ perception on achievement tests .2: Criteria of a good achievement test. Purposes of designing an achievement test .4: Test techniques used in achievement tests .5: Basis for deciding on the number of test items in a 45-minute test .6: Procedure of achievement test designing .7: Grading students‟ achievements .8: Purposes of grading students‟ achievement .9: Teachers‟ feedback on students‟ tests .10: Difficulties in designing achievement tests .11: Methods for more effective achievement tests .68 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.2: Elicitation and response modes in test construction .27 7 ABSTRACT Although achievement test is the most common test type used in language classrooms, its concept is not fully understood and appropriately designed by high school teachers. Furthermore, the construction of this test seems to include lots of difficulties This thesis aims to investigate teachers‟ perceptions of achievement tests and their practice concerning their test design at some upper secondary schools in Thua Thien Hue province.
The data for this study were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews conducted with teachers. Reviews of sample tests used at some upper secondary schools in Thua Thien Hue province were also conducted. The results show that all of the teachers were well aware of the importance of achievement tests in language teaching and learning. However,certain difficulties in designing these tests such as the mixed levels of students‟ language proficiency, limited materials available, required facilities and other factors were enormous obstacles for high school teachers.
It is suggested that teachers should be provided with different kinds of books related to language testing and designing. Furthermore, tests should be properly designed and given depending on students‟ level of language proficiency. Background of the research Assessment is “one of the cornertones of the learning process” (Hatipoglu, 2010, p.40) and testing is an effective tool for assessment. The concept of language testing is not new.
In the past twenty years, we have witnessed an impressive number of approaches and tools for research and development in language testing (Bachman, 2000). There are a rich variety of researchers who have had theoretical and experimental studies on testing. in this field. For example, Davis with the book named Principles of Language Testing (1990), Hughes with Testing for Language Teachers (1992) and Brown with Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (1994) and Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices (2004).
In Vietnam, tests are officially used by teachers at upper-secondary schools and they are considered the main tool for evaluating students‟ abilities. Brown (2004) states that “an effective achievement test will offer washback about the quality of a learner‟s performance in subsets of the unit or course” (p. Testing is conducted in order to measure how much students have achieved, to look back on the teaching methods in order to see whether they are suitable or not, to encourage students to try their best (Nguyen et al., 2003), to find out students‟ difficulties in learning, to select and place them in the right level and to evaluate students‟ proficiency. There are many test types that are used to test language learners‟ abilities such as aptitude tests, proficiency tests, placement tests, diagnostic tests and achievement tests (Brown, 2004).
However, besides placement tests which are frequently conducted at the beginning of each school year, achievement tests are the main test type that is mainly used to evaluate students‟ learning at upper-secondary schools in 9 Vietnam. Thereby, designing an effective achievement test which reflects the real learning outcome is an important task for teachers at these schools. However, most of the studies in testing just focus on testing and assessment in general. Having been a teacher at Nguyen Sinh Cung upper- secondary school in Thua Thien Hue province for three years, I have experienced that achievement tests are obligatorily used in order to assess students‟ progress as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching process.
However, teachers do not usually have positive perceptions on designing achievement tests and have difficulties in designing tests. This can affect the quality of the tests designed. I thus wish to conduct this research to find out what teachers think about designing achievement tests and how they design effective tests to measure their students‟ learning outcome. Also, this project is a precious opportunity for me to explore the effective ways of designing achievement tests.
Aims of the research This research aims to find out the thought of teachers about achievement tests and the way they design the tests to assess what their students have learnt. From the findings, the researcher wishes to provide a general look on teachers‟ perception about language testing, particularly achievement tests. Besides, the practice on designing achievement tests is also put into consideration so that we can discover how teachers create a test that can measure their students‟ learning. The scope of the research The study focuses on an investigation into teachers‟ perceptions and practice on designing achievement tests at some upper- secondary schools in Thua Thien Hue province.
Therefore, the scope of the research is the teachers at the above schools. The data collected in this micro setting could not be generalized to other contexts. However, the project is still significant as it will help teachers in the other similar contexts in designing more effective achievement tests. Research questions The aim of this project is to document teacher‟s perceptions of designing tests and exploring ways to make them more effective.
This study attempts to answer three following questions: 1. What are teachers‟ perceptions of designing achievement tests for students at some upper-secondary schools in Thua Thien Hue province? 2. How effective are the achievement tests already designed and used by teachers? 3. How can those achievement tests be designed in a more effective way? 1.
The significance of the research The results of the study can clearly benefit educationalists, teachers and students. On the one hand, the results create a chance for educationalists to look back on the reality of testing at upper-secondary schools and therefore, have some proper adaptations so that testing can reflect the real effectiveness of teaching and learning process. On another hand, this is a precious opportunity for teachers to say what difficulties they have and what they have to improve or develop when designing tests, especially achievement test.