Language and literature assessment

KEY CONCEPTS
• Assessment is the act of gathering information on a daily basis in order to understand individual
student’s learning and needs.

• 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 the ability to use it.
(Carol Chapelle and Geoff Bingley)

• Language Testing is the practice and study of evaluating the proficiency of an individual in using a
particular language effectively. (Priscilla Allen)

• Evaluation is the culminating act of interpreting the information gathered for the purpose of making
decisions or judgments about student’s learning and needs, often at a reporting time.

PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

Assessment for learning focuses on the gap between where the learner is in his/her learning, and where
he/she needs to be – the desired goals. This can be achieved through processes such as sharing criteria
with learners, effective questioning and feedback.

Black and William define assessment for learning as all those activities undertaken by teachers and/or by
the students, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning
activities in which they are engaged.

Learners learn best when…

• They understand clearly what they are trying to learn, and what is expected of them.

• They are given feedback about the quality of their work and what they can do to make it better.

• They are given advice about how to go about making improvements.

• They are fully involved in deciding what needs to be done next, and who can give them help if they
need it.
ASSESSMENT AS LEARNING

Assessment as learning is about reflecting the evidence of learning. This is a part of the cycle of
assessment where pupils and staff set learning goals, share learning intentions and success criteria and
evaluate their learning through dialogue and self and peer assessment.

Through this, learners become more aware of- what they learn- how they learn- what helps them learn

ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING

Assessment of learning involves working with the range of available evidence that enables staff and the
wider assessment community to check on student’s progress and using this information in a number of
ways.

• Assessment of learning provides an arena for the management and planning of assessment, and the
teachers to work collaboratively with the evidence. It connects assessment to the curriculum.

Assessments of the students should be

Valid (based on sound criteria)

• They are reliable (The accuracy of assessment)

• They are comparable (they stand up when they compared in other departments or schools)
FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE TEST
In learning - In learning, tests are used to measure student’s language ability, to discover how much
they have been learning, to diagnose the student’s strengths and weaknesses, and to motivate students
in learning.

a. sometimes, language teachers choose to test students through periodic quizzes and tests of
achievements.

b. At other times instructor assess their students’ language proficiency after several years of language
study.

c. At other times language teachers use tests for placement and diagnostic reasons and other purposes.

 In teaching

tests are used in teaching as a means to ensure effective teaching, to improve teaching quality, to obtain
feedback on student learning place on course.

Tests can have a “backwash effect” which means that they may result in changes of instructional
programs or teaching strategies to reflect the test contents because language teachers want their
students to do well on high stake tests for many different reasons.

 In Research- Language tests have a potentially important role in virtually all research, both basic and
applied, that is related to the nature of the language proficiency, language acquisition, language
processing, language attrition and language teaching.
Types of Assessment and Evaluation

Assessment and evaluation studies may take place at the subject, department, or Institutional level, and
range in size and scope from a pilot study to a complex project that addresses a number of different
topics, involves hundreds of students, and includes a variety of methodologies. Typically, assessment
efforts are divided into two types, formative or summative. Below, each is described briefly along with a
third less frequently seen type called process assessment. Included, as well, is a grid that classifies
different assessment methodologies.

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment implies that the results will be used in the formation and revision process of an
educational effort. Formative assessments are used in the improvement of educational programs. This
type of assessment is the most common form of assessment in higher education, and it constitutes a
large proportion of TLL’s assessment work. Since educators are continuously looking for ways to
strengthen their educational efforts, this type of constructive feedback is valuable.

Summative Assessment

Summative assessment is used for the purpose of documenting outcomes and judging value. It is used
for providing feedback to instructors about the quality of a subject or program, reporting to
stakeholders and granting agencies, producing reports for accreditation, and marketing the attributes of
a subject or program. Most studies of this type are rarely exclusively summative in practice, and they
usually contain some aspects of formative assessment.

Assessment Tool Types

Anecdotal Record An informal record of an event or behavior observed in the classroom. Benchmark
Standards to help a teacher determine students’ progress in literacy development.

Checklist An assessment guideline listing skills, behaviors, or characteristics to help guide and record
teacher observations of students as they perform certain tasks. There are also student checklists that
can be used by students for self-assessment purposes.

Conference A meeting or conversation involving teacher, student, and/or family members to discuss a
student’s progress. The purpose is to facilitate one-on-one exchanges, and allow the student to express
him- or herself. In a parent conference, the basic purpose is to inform parents of their children’s
progress and school performance.

End-of-Year Test A formal assessment of specific skills taught during instruction throughout the year.
Journal A notebook in which a student can write a spontaneous response to literature and/or
assessment of personal progress with reading skills and strategies.

Literacy Log A record of student literacy activities (for example “Books I Have Read”) to help students
keep track of his or her own reading or writing progress. Students also use the logs for recording their
personal responses to the literature. In some cases, a teacher can suggest prompts for students to use
to stimulate thoughts. Students may also use logs to record words that are new, interesting, and
entertaining.

Oral Fluency An informal assessment of reading to determine oral reading errors or Assessment
miscues. Observation An informal assessment technique of watching students to identify strengths and
weaknesses, patterns of behavior, and cognitive strategies. Observations help determine which students
need additional support and how to adjust instruction to encourage more and better learning.

Oral Reading An oral and silent reading assessment used for diagnosing students’ Assessment
developmental literacy levels through oral retelling and an individual reading inventory.

Peer Assessment An instrument for helping students understand expectations and assess a classmate’s
skills. Performance A form of informal or authentic assessment that measures students’ Assessment
understanding of concepts and/or procedures by having them demonstrate what they have learned. For
example, a teacher might have students find the square footage of a classroom to assess their
understanding of area.

Portfolio Assessment A form of authentic assessment in which students collect samples of their work in
a portfolio to document their progress over time. Different types of portfolios include: showcase, which
celebrates students’ best work; descriptive, which demonstrates what students can do; evaluative,
which assesses students’ work against a standard; and progress, which documents students’ work over
time. Project/ Independent work created by the student or a group of students.

Demonstration Reading History An informal assessment by students of their reading and writing
interests and experiences.

Rubric An evaluation tool that lists the important features that should be present in students’
performance or products. Rubrics clearly identify what will be graded.

Self-Assessment Students develop their own list of characteristics or qualities to judge their own work.
Students who learn to monitor their own progress and judge their own efforts will strive to improve.

Standardized Test Test that measures students’ performance against standards or norms and can serve
as potentially powerful tools for instruction. It is the most objective and scientific measure available for
assessing students’ abilities.

Writing Assessment A formal evaluation of students’ writing skills.

Kinds of language test

Proficiency Test

Proficiency tests are designed to measure people’s ability in language, regardless any training they may
have in that language.

The content of a proficiency test is not based on the content of the objectives of language courses. It’s
based on a specification of what candidates have to be able to do in the language in order to be
considered proficient.

Achievement test

The content of the course in achievement tests are directly related to language course.

The purpose is being able to establish how successful individual students, group 0f students and the
course in achieving the objectives.

There are two kinds of achievement tests:

Final achievement test

Progress achievement test

Final achievement test:

It’s administered at the end of a course of study

The content of the test must be related to the courses with which they are concerned, but the nature of
this relationship is a matter of disagreement amongst language testers.

In the view of some testers, the content of a final achievement test should be based directly on a
detailed course syllabus or the books and other materials used.

Progress Achievement Test:

as the name suggests, are intended to measure the progress that students are making. They contribute
to formative assessment. Since 'progress' is towards the achievement of course objectives, these tests,
too, should relate to objectives.
Diagnostic Test

It’s used to identify learners’ strength and weaknesses. It’s intended primarily to ascertain what
learning still needs to take place.

Placement Test

It’s intended to provide information that will help to place students at the stage of the teaching program
most appropriate to their abilities. Typically, it’s used to assign students to classes at different level or
sectioning.

Language approaches and techniques

ESSAY-TRANSLATION APPROACH

This is commonly referred to as the pre- scientific stage of language testing. No special skill or expertise
in testing is required. Tests usually consist of essay writing, translation and grammatical analysis

STRUCTURALIST APPROACH

This approach views that language learning is chiefly concerned with systematic acquisition of a set of
habits. The structuralist approach involves structural linguistics which stresses the importance of
constructive analysis and the need to identify and measure the learners’ mastery of the separate
elements of the target language such as phonology, vocabulary and grammar.

INTEGRATIVE APPROACH

This approach involves the testing of language in context and is thus concerned primarily with meaning
and the total communicative effect of discourse. Integrative tests are concerned with a global view of
proficiency.

Integrative testing involves functional language but not the use of functional language. The use of cloze
test, dictation, oral interview, translation and essay writing are included in many integrative tests.

COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

Communicative tests are concerned primarily with how language is used in communication. Language
use is often emphasized to the exclusion of language usage. The attempt to measure different language
skills incommunicative tests is based on a view of language referred to as divisibility hypothesis.

INCOMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

The test content should totally be relevant for a particular group of examinees and the tasks set should
relate to real-life situation. Communicative testing introduces the concept of qualitative modes of
assessment in preference to quantitative modes of assessment.
Test techniques
Direct vs Indirect testing

Direct Approach Indirect Approach

Requires the candidate to perform Attempts to measure the
precisely the skill that the test abilities that underlie the skills
wishes to measure. in which the test is interested.
Requires the candidate to perform
precisely the skill that the test
wishes to measure

Discrete Point vs Integrative Teaching

Discrete Point Integrative Teaching

Refers to the testing of one Requires the candidate to combine
element at a time item by item many language elements in the
completion of task

Discrete point tests will always be indirect while

integrative tests will tend to be direct.

Evaluation Phases and Processes
In general, evaluation processes go through four distinct phases: planning, implementation, completion,
and reporting. While these mirror common program development steps, it is important to remember
that your evaluation efforts may not always be linear, depending on where you are in your program or
intervention.

Planning

The most important considerations during the planning phase of your project evaluation are prioritizing
short and long-term goals, identifying your target audience(s), determining methods for collecting data,
and assessing the feasibility of each for your target audience(s).

Implementation

This is the carrying out of your evaluation plan. Although it may vary considerably from project to
project, you will likely concentrate on formative and process evaluation strategies at this point in your
efforts.

Completion

Upon completion of your program, or the intermediate steps along the way, your evaluation efforts will
be designed to examine long term outcomes and impacts, and summarize the overall performance of
your program.

Reporting and Communication

In order to tell your story effectively, it's critical for you to consider what you want to communicate
about the results or processes of your project, what audiences are most important to communicate
with, and what are the most appropriate methods for disseminating your information.
Stages of test construction

Stage1 Planning for the Test:

 Outline subject-matter content to be considered as the basis for the test. Identify learning
outcomes to be measured by the test.
 Prepare table of specifications.
 Choose appropriate type(s) of test items for evaluation of learning outcomes as summarized in
the table of specifications.

Stage 2 Preparing the Test

 Write test items according to rules of construction for the type(s) chosen.
 Select the items to be included in the test according to table of specifications.
 Review and edit items according to guidelines.
 Arrange items: decide on
 grouping of items,
 sequence of items within groups,
 sequence of groupings.
 Prepare directions for the test; if necessary, prepare directions for individual items (e.g.,
matching type) or for sections (e.g., negative form of one- best response type). Decide on
method of scoring.

Stage 3 Validity of the Test

 Valid tests measure what they actually were designed to measure.
 Tests of validity:
 Content
 Criterion - related
 Construct

Stage 4 Reliability of the Test

 Reliable tests measure what they were designed to measure consistently.
 Methods of determining reliability:
 Test - retest method.
 Equivalent – forms method.
 Test - retest with equivalent forms.
 Internal consistency method.

objectivity It means that if the test is marked by different people, the scores will be the same.
Comprehensiveness A good test should include items from different areas of material assigned for the
test: e.g. (Dialogue, composition, comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, dictation)

Simplicity means that the test should be written in a clear, correct and simple language, it is important
to keep the method of testing as simple as possible while still testing the skill you intend to test (avoid
ambiguous questions and ambiguous instructions.)

Scorability means that each item in the test has its own mark related to the distribution of marks given
by the ministry of education or a teacher. (E) Practicality It is the relationship between the resources
that will be required in the design, development and use of the test and the resources that will be
available for these activities.

Stage 5 Arranging Items

The items should be arranged so that all items of the same type are grouped together. The items should
be arranged in order of increasing difficulty. For some purposes, it may be desirable to group together
items which measure the same learning outcomes or the same subject-matter content.

Stage 6 Writing Directions

The directions for test should be simple and concise and yet contain information concerning each of the
following:

1. Purpose of the test.

2. Time allowed to complete the test.

3. How to record the answers.

4. Whether to guess when in doubt about the answer.

Stage 7 Analyzing and Revising the Test

Retain, edit as necessary, or discard items on basis of analysis outcomes.

Revise the test as a whole if necessary.

The difficulty of the item.

The discriminating power of the item.

The effectiveness of each alternative.

Stage 8 Reproducing the Test

Decisions need to be made regarding page size, type size, page layout (length of line, placing of items on
page, provision for response, page numbers, arrangement of alternatives in multiple choice items),
preparation of copy, proofreading.

Stage 9 Administering and Scoring the Test

 Decisions need to be made regarding setting of time limits, observation of time limits, physical
set-up, proctors (Someone who supervises an examination) distribution of test, scoring sheets,
scoring method (by hand/machine).
 Decisions need to be made regarding weighting of items according to table of specifications.

Administering Tests

 When it is time to have students take the test, there are several things you should keep in mind
to make the experience run as smoothly as possible:
 Have extra copies of the test on hand, in case you have miscounted or in the event of some
other problem;
 Minimize interruptions during the exam by reading the directions briefly at the start and
refraining from commenting during the exam unless you discover a problem;
 Periodically write the time remaining on the board; Be alert for cheating but do not hover over
the students and cause a distraction.

Some basic tips for designing Test

 Create new tests each time you teach a course.

 Leave yourself time to write the test.
 Create a bank of questions during the term.
 Pay attention to the layout of the exam.

Guidelines for Preparing the Final Draft Reviewing, Selecting and Editing Items

 Does each test item measure an important learning-outcome included in the table of
specifications?
 Is each item type appropriate for the particular learning outcome to be measured?
 Does each item present a clearly formulated task?
 Is the item free from extraneous clues?
 Is the difficulty of the item appropriate for the students to be tested?
 Is each test item independent and are the items, as a group, free from overlapping?