Luis Saed Ruiz Figueroa

Five Principle of Language Assessment

A test is one of the tools used by teachers to assess students and get the
information they want. When we talk about a test we usually think that it is only a
piece of paper that students answer and then you mark it, however the truth is that to
assess appropriately we need to take into consideration certain things. We can
designed a test but we need to follow five principles to say that it is effective.
Validity is one of them and according to some authors.it is the most important
principle. A test is valid when it measure what it should be measured. As an example
of it, a reading test should be focused on the reading skills the students should have
and not going neither beyond of it or less than it. Validity is also considered as a
complex principle because there is no absolute measure of validity.
Practicality is another principle that should be taken into consideration. A test is
practical when it is within some factors as time and cost. A practical test should not
be expensive and should not last long time. Administration plays a very important
role in practicality because a test can be considered practical when it is easy to
administer. The background where the administrator lives can be also a factor in
practicality, as an example of this can be that a teahcer want some students to
answer the test and then you will mark them with a computer but if there is no
computer near of the city that would not be practical.
The third principle is reliability. This principle is important because it implies that the
results of the test are trustful. When we talk about reliability we talked that if a tests is
applied in two different occasions eventually the teacher will get similar results. Of
course there are some factors that can affect reliability towards the teacher (attitude,
classroom management, aptitude) student(emotions, motivation, background) , the
administration (noise, time of the day, room conditions and forniture conditions) and
the person who mark the test. Reliability determines if a test can be applied again or
not so is very important to consider it when assessing,
The fourth principle is authenticity.is the principle that is focused on the usefulness
of the test. A test is authentic when it contains a language that the test takers can
understand, and this means that language should not be neither too high or low.
Another factor of authenticity is that the items should be classified and organized,
this is important because students can understand what topics are being assessed.
One of the most important characteristic of authenticity is that it presents real- world
tasks so students can understand easily the exercises. In addition to this, information
should be meaningful for learners because in that way students can comprehend the
information and they can get advantage of it.

Luis Saed Ruiz Figueroa

Washback is the fifth principle and this might not be as relevant as the other four but
it has an important role in assessment. Washback can be seen as the impact that
the test has on the learners. Washback is present since the previous preparation for
the test until the part of giving feedback to learners. the impact that washback has in
learners is important because mistakes in tests can be seen as areas of
improvement and the right answers should be praised and in consequence students
will show a good attitude towards assessment. Finally, as it has been mentioned
before feedback takes part in washback. Students should have access to feedback,
to know what are their strength and in what areas they can improve.