Designing classroom language tests copy

Designing classroom
language tests.
( Based on : Language Assessment
Principles and Classroom Practices
‘ H. Douglas Brown ’ )
Presented by : -Hayat FAKRI
-Asma MAZAUZE

Outline :
I. Test Types:
 Language Aptitude Tests
 Proficiency Tests
 Placement Tests
 Diagnostic Tests
 Achievement Tests
II. - Some Practical Steps to Test Construction:
 Assessing Clear, Unambiguous Objectives
 Drawing Up Test Specifications
 Devising Test Tasks
 Designing multiple-choice test items
III. - Scoring, Grading, and Feedback.

I. - Test Types :
Language Aptitude Test :
- Predicts a person’s success prior to
exposure to the second language.
- Designed to measure capacity or
general ability to learn a foreign
language and ultimate succession in that
undertaking.

Standardized Aptitude Tests :
Modern Language Test ( MLAT )
Pimsleur Language Battery ( PLAB )

Proficiency test :
- Designed to measure people’s ability in
language, regardless any training they may
have in that language.
- - Proficiency tests are almost always
summative and norm-referenced.
- - The content on a proficiency test is not
based on the objectives of language
courses.

- In proficiency tests, the construct of
language ability are specified.
E.g : Standardized proficiency test : TOEFL (
Test Of English as a Foreign Language )

Placement Tests :
- Used to place a student into a particular
level or section of a language curriculum or
school.
- Placement tests come in many varieties :
assessing comprehension and production,
responding through written and oral
performance, open-ended and limited
responses, selection and gap filling formats.

Diagnostic Tests :
- A diagnostic test is designed to diagnose
specified aspects of a language.
- Identify learner’s strenghts and
weaknesses.
- Diagnostic tests should elicit information on
what students need to work on in the future.

- Offer more detailed subcategorized
information on the learner.
Page 47

Achievement Tests :
- The content of the course in achievement
tests are directly related to language course.
- Determine whether course objectives have
been met and appropriate knowledge and
skills acquired by the end of a period
instruction.
- Limited to a particular material addressed
in a curriculum.

II. Practical steps to test construction :
1. Clear and unambiguous Objectives:
Objectives should be valid; that is to say:
Specific, measurable, stated in terms of overt
performance, and based on objectives of the unit
you are testing learners in.

Designing classroom language tests copy

2. Drawing up test specifications
Outline
Skills to be included
Item types and tasks

The topic.
The elicitation and response formats.
N° of items in each section.
Time allocated for each section.

3. Devising test tasks:
Speaking ( oral interview):
• Drafting questions.
• Begin and end with nonscored items.
• Present items intended to test the objectives.

Listening (Audiotape):
Authenticity and face validity of the
listening material.

Revising draft
When revising your draft, ask yourself these
questions:
-Are the directions to each section absolutely
clear ?
-Does each item measure a specified objective ?
-Is each item in clear, authentic and simple
language?
-Is the difficulty to each item appropriate for your
students?
-Does the sum of the items reflect the learning
objectives?
-Does each multiple choice item have appropriate
distractors?

4. Designing multiple choice items (MCQ)
MCQ, also known as items, consists of:
A stem,
alternatives,
the key,
distractors.
There are 3 types of MCQ’s:
Choosing, matching, and True/False
questions.

Advantages & disadvantages of MCQ
+ Practical.
–Guessing may have a considerable effect on test scores.
–It is very difficult to write successful items.
–What can be tested is severly stricted.
–It tests only recognition knowledge.
–Cheating may be facilitated.

Guidelines for designing MCQ
Design each item to measure a specific
objective. (p56-57)
State both stem and options as simply and
directly as possible. (P57-58)
Make sure that the intended answer is the only
correct one. (p58)
Use item indices to accept, discard, revise items.

•Item facility (IF) is defined here as the proportion of
students who answered a particular itemcorrectly.
•Item discrimination (ID) refers to the ability of an item
to differentiateamong studentson the basis of how well they know
the materialbeing tested.
• Distractor efficiency shows how welleach of the
incorrect options contributes to the quality of a multiplechoice
item.

3 – Scoring, Grading and Feedback :
Scoring :
- Your scoring plan reflects the relative weight
that you place in each section.
Page 62

Grading :
- How you assign letter grades to a test is a product
of :
• The country, culture , and context of this English
classroom
• Institutional expectations
• Explicit and implicit definitions of grades that you
have set forth
• The relationship you have established with this
class and student ecpectations that have been
engendered in previous tests and quizzes in the
class.

Designing classroom language tests copy

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