"A definition is enclosing a wilderness of idea within a wall of words." ---Samuel Butler (1835-1902) Definition 1 "Language Testing is the practice and study of evaluating the proficiency of an individual in using a particular language effectively."---Priscilla Allen, University of Washington. Definition 2 "The activity of developing and using 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 persons knowledge and/or ability in the language and to discriminate that persons 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." ----Alan Davies, University of Edinburgh. Definition 3 "In the context of language teaching and learning, 'assessment' refers to the act of collecting information and making judgments about a language learner's knowledge of a language and ability to use it." ---Carol Chapelle and Geoff Brindley, Universities of Iowa State and Macquarie. Definition 4 I have to say that this is my personal favourite. "It is a species of sortition infinitely preferable to the ancient method of casting lots for honours and offices." ----F. Y. Edgeworth, in his 1888 paper The Statistics of Examinations. Founding Documents of Modern Language Testing Sometimes complex phenomena like language testing are explained in relation to their roots. It is often said that modern language testing dates to 1961, because this was the date of the publication of the first book on language testing by Robert Lado, and a paper setting out the scope of language testing by J. B. Carroll. Below are two PDF documents. One is a short extract from the beginning of Lado's Language Testing, and the second is Carroll's Fundamental Considerations in Testing for English Language Proficiency of Foreign Students. Lado: extracts from Language Testing Carroll: Fundamental Considerations in Testing On this website you can explore many of the concepts underlying the modern practice of language testing. A useful place to start is by watching our short videos on key ideas in language testing.
Wikipedia has an entry on language testing. This is its current definition:
"Language Assessment or Language Testing is a field of study under the umbrella of applied linguistics. Its main focus is the assessment of first, second or other language in the school, college, or university context; assessment of language use in the workplace; and assessment of language in the immigration, citizenship, and asylum contexts." This is attributed to the 2008 edition of the Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Vol 7., Language Testing and Assessment Test Preparation Tests have been used for as long as there has been organised education to make decisions about who is able to undertake certain tasks in society. The earliest references that I have discovered to selection "trials" is in Plato's Republic. As you will see in the scenarios below, the use of tests for selection impacts upon jobs, education, and many other roles in life. This means that test scores have economic value. This is not a new observation. The following quotation is from the 19th Century: "Parents want something to shew for education; a place in an examination list seems to gauge the advantage which they have paid for, and besides it frequently has a positive market value as opening the door to some emolument or profession" (Latham, 1887, p. 23). It is therefore inevitable that the use of tests will generate "satellite industries", the larges of which is test preparation. Latham was the first to refer to schools that specialised in test preparation as "crammers". We still use the word today. However, there is such a thing as ethical test preparation. For further information on test preparation for some of the larger tests, and for the purposes of immigration.
APPROACHES IN LANGUAGE TESTING
1. Discrete-point Testing Approach Discrete Point tests are constructed on the assumption that language can be divided into its components parts, and those parts can be tested successfully. The components are the skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and various unit of language of phonology, morphology, lexicon, and syntax. Discrete point tests aim to achieve a high reliability factor by testing a large number of discrete items, but each question tests only one linguistic point. 2. Integrative Testing Approach This approach involves the testing of language in context and is thus concerned primarily with meaning and the total communicative effect of discourse. This approach stated that communicative competence is so global that it requires the integration of all linguistic abilities. According to Oller (1983), if discrete items take language skill apart, integrative tests put it back together; whereas discrete items attempt to test knowledge of language a bit at a time, integrative tests attempt to assess a learners capacity to use many bits all at the same time. The fact that discrete point and integrative testing only provided a measure of the candidates competence rather than measuring the candidates performance brought about the need for communicative language testing (Weir 1990). By the mid-1980s, the language testing field had abandoned arguments about the unitary competence and had begun to focus on designing communicative language testing (Brown, 2004) 3. Communicative Testing Approach Communicative testing approach lays more emphasis on the notion and function, like agreeing, persuading, or inviting, that language means in communication. Communicative language testing approach is used to measure language learners ability to use the target language in authentic situations. The approach beliefs that someone/ a student is considered successful in learning the target language if she/he can communicate or use knowledge and skills by way of authentic listening, speaking , reading and writing . Communicative language tests have to be as accurate a reflection of that situation as possible. The example of communicative language test is role play. The teacher asks students to do a role play such as pretending that the students come to the doctor, pretending that the students are in the market. The principles of testing in the communicative language testing can be describe as the following (Anon,1990) : Tasks in the test should resemble as far as possible to the ones as would be found in real life in terms of communicative use of language There is a call for test items contextualization . There is a need to make test items that adress a definite audience for a purposeful communicative intent (goal) to be envisioned (might happen). Test instructions and scoring plans should touch on effective, communication of meaning rather than on grammatical accuracy 4. Performance testing approach Any assesment can be considered a type of performance when a student is placed in some context and asked to show what they know or can do in that context. Performance-based assessment believes that the students will learn best when they are given a chance to perform and show what they know according to their own plan, collect data, infer pattern, draw conclution, take a stand or diliver presentation. According to Brown(2004), In developing performance- based assessment, we as teacher should consider the following principle: State the overall goal of the performance Specify the objectives (criteria) of the performance in details Prepare students for performance in stepwise progressions Use a reliable evaluation form, checklist or rating sheet Treat performances as opportunities for giving feedback and provide that feedback systematically If possible, utilize self- and peer-assessments judiciously(wisely/carefully) Strengths and Weaknesses of Language Testing Approach 1. Discrete-point Testing Approach Strength The test of this approach can cover a wide range of scope of materials to be put in the tests. The test allows quantification on the students responses. In the term of scoring, the test is also reliable because of its objectivity; the scoring is efficient, even it can be perform by machine Weaknesses Constructing discrete point test items is potentially energy and time consuming. The test do not include social context where verbal communication normally take place. Success in doing the test is not readily inferable to the ability of the test taker to communicate in real life circumstances. 2. Integrative Testing Approach Strength The approach to meaning and the total communicative effect of discourse will be very useful for pupils in testing This approach can view pupils proficiency with a global view. The strength of the test such as dictation, writing, and cloze test is that relatively cheap and easy to make Weaknesses Even if measuring integrated skills are better but sometimes teacher should consider the importance of measuring skills based on particular need, such as writing only, speaking only The scoring is not efficient and not reliable
3. Communicative Testing Approach
Strength The tests are more realistic to evaluate the students language use, as the students in a role as though they were to communicate in the real world / daily lives. It increases students motivation since they can see the use of language they learnt in class in the real world. Weaknesses Not efficient (time and energy consuming) Problem of extrapolation (Weir, 1990) (we cannot guarantee that the students who successfully accomplish the task in class will also be successfull in the communication in real life) 4. Performance Testing Approach Strengths Increasing learning motivation (The students tend to be more motivated and involved when they are allowed to perform according to their own plan, collect data, infer a pattern, draw conclutions, take stand, or deliver a presentation.) Meaningful (it is meaningful assessment since we require students to show what they can do through project, performance, or observation. It will give them learning experience more than just paper and pencil test) Authentic (since the materials and topics we use in class is authentic, the students can see the relation of what they learn with the reality in their daily lives) Challange high order thinking of students (In order to prepare for the best performance, the students will try their best to analyze the problem deeper and find many learning sources by themselves ) Weaknesses Time consuming (for students: they need to prepare the performance e.g. Download information for the Internet or preparing the costume and property for role play, for teacher: Teachers need to provide guidance in every stage they are going to be through. For example, in assessing the students to make portofolio of essay, we need to check every single paper of the students one by one every week, and when it has been revised, we have to check it again. Expensive (Students: the students should provide extra money to prepare the performance such as costumes for role play) Challage the teacher to match performance assessment to classroom goals and learning objectives.
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