Instructor: Dr.
Nguyen Thi Hong Tham
Email: hongthamnguyen@hcmussh.edu.vn
Brown, H. and Abeywickrama, P. (2019)
Chapter 1, pp. 1-26.
Testing
is a type of assessment, a method/instrument
which measures a person’s ability, knowledge, or
performance in a given domain.
A test measures performance and competence.
A test measures a given domain.
Assessment
Ø identifies the current condition or current progress of
something, such as the ability or condition of a language
learner.
Ø is an ongoing process that encompasses a wider domain
than testing.
Ø Is an integral part of the teaching-learning cycle.
Ø Purposes:
• To certify student achievement
• To support learning
Measurement and evaluation
Measurement is the process of quantifying the observed
performance of classroom learners.
Quantitative descriptions of student performance:
assigning numbers to observed performance.
v Advantages: Numbers: providing exact descriptions of
student performance, greater objectivity.
Qualitative descriptions of student performance: written
descriptions, oral feedback, and other nonquantifiable
reports.
v Advantages: providing individualized feedback for a
student
Evaluation
is involved when the results of a test (or other
assessment procedure) are used to make decisions.
involved the interpretation of information.
Teaching
Teaching sets up the practice games of language
learning: the opportunities for learners to listen, think,
take risks, set goals, and process feedback from the
‘coach’ and then recycle through the skills that they are
trying to master.
Informal and formal assessment
Informal assessment
• incidental, unplanned
Formal assessment
• systematic, planned sampling
comments and responses; techniques constructed to give
coaching and other impromptu teacher and student an appraisal
feedback to the student. of student achievement.
Ex: marginal comments on papers, Ex: tests, portfolios, essays, etc.
oral feedback
All tests are formal assessments, but not all formal
assessment is testing.
Summative and formative assessment
Task 1 (10 minutes): Let’s watch the following video
clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTGnJnuVNt8
and answer this question:
What are the differences between summative and
formative assessment?
Summative and formative assessment
Summative assessment Formative assessment
Goal to measure, or summarize, what to monitor student learning
a student has grasped. to provide ongoing feedback for
students to improve their learning
and for instructors to improve their
teaching.
Time typically occurs at the end of a typically occurs during the learning
course or unit of instruction. process.
Weight
of high low
grades
Ex Midterm tests, end-of-term tests, journals, learning logs, the minute
proficiency exams, final projects, paper, concept maps, directed
etc. summarization, diagnostic tests, and
quizzes, etc.
Norm-Referenced and Criterion-Referenced Tests
Norm-referenced tests Criterion-referenced tests
to place test-takers along a
to give test-takers feedback, usually in
mathematical continuum in rank the form of grades, on specific course
order. or lesson objectives.
Scores are usually reported back
to the test-taker in the form of a
numerical score and a percentile
rank
Ex: Standardised tests (TOEFL, Ex: classroom-based tests.
TOEIC, IELTS)
Types of test
Type of test Purpose
1. Proficiency Test
To assess general ability in a second language.
2. Achievement Test To evaluate how much a learner knows from a
defined amount of course or class work.
3. Diagnostic Test To identify a student’s strengths or
weaknesses in specific areas of language.
4. Placement Test To determine which would be the most
appropriate class, stream or level in which to
place a student so that subsequent language
teaching is appropriate to their needs.
Types of test
1. LANGUAGE APTITUDE TESTS
Predict a person’s success prior to exposure to the second
language.
Measure capacity/ general ability to learn a foreign language
and ultimate success in that undertaking.
Two standardized aptitude tests: Modern Language Aptitude Test
(MLAT) and Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB).
Limitation: measuring success by similar processes of mimicry,
memorisation, and puzzle-solving; no research to show
unequivocally that these tasks predict communicative success in
a language, esp. untutored acquisition of the language.
2. PROFICIENCY TESTS
Not limited to any one course, curriculum, or single skill
in the language.
Test overall ability.
Summative and norm-referenced.
Providing a single score which plays the gate-keeping
role.
Not equipped to provide diagnostic feedback.
The tasks must be legitimate samples of English
language use in the defined context.
Creating these tasks and validating them with research
is time-consuming and costly process.
Examples: TOEFL, IELTS
3. PLACEMENT TESTS
Proficiency tests can act in the role of placement tests.
Purpose: to place a student into a particular level or
section of a language curriculum or school.
Example: The English as a Second Language Placement
Test (ESLPT)
Face validity, diagnostic information on students’
performance and authenticity
4. DIAGNOSTIC TESTS
Diagnose specified aspects of a language.
Diagnostic and placement tests may sometimes
be indistinguishable from each other.
5. ACHIEVEMENT TESTS
is related directly to classroom lessons, units, or even a
total curriculum.
Primary role: to determine whether course objectives
have been met – and appropriate knowledge and skills
acquired – by the end of a period of instruction.
Often summative, but also formative in offering
washback about the quality of a learners’ performance in
subsets of the unit or course.
Distinguishing a diagnostic test and a general
achievement test:
a. Achievement tests: analyse the extent to
which students have acquired language
features that have already been taught.
b. Diagnostic test: should elicit information on
what students need to work on in the future.
