Testing
and Evaluation
Testing and evaluation of language skills and
competencies are very important components of. language teaching. Testing becomes an
integral part of teaching because it
provides significant information or. inputs about the growth and achievement of
learner's difficulties, styles of learning, anxiety levels.
Difference between Testing and Evaluation
Education
professionals make distinctions between assessment, evaluation,
and testing. ... A test or quiz is used to examine
someone's knowledge of something to determine what he or she knows or has
learned. Testing measures the level of skill or knowledge that
has been reached. Evaluation is a process
that critically examines a program. It involves collecting and analyzing
information about a program's activities, characteristics, and outcomes. Its purpose is to make
judgments about a program, to improve its effectiveness, and/or to inform
programming decisions
Kinds of tests
There are many kinds of tests, each with a specific purpose, a
particular criterion to be measured.
Proficiency Tests
A proficiency test is not intended to be limited to any one
course, curriculum, or single skill in the language. Proficiency tests have
traditionally consisted of standardized multiple-choice items on grammar,
vocabulary, reading comprehension, aural comprehension, and sometimes of a
sample of writing.
A rather typical example of a standardized proficiency test is the
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) produced by the
Educational Testing Service. It is used by nearly 1000 institutions of higher
education in the United States as an indicator of a prospective student's
ability to undertake academic work in an English medium. The TOEFL consists of
the following three sections:
Section 1, Listening Comprehension, measures the ability to
understand English as it is spoken in the United States. The oral aspects of
the language are stressed. The problems tested include vocabulary that is more
frequently used in spoken English, structures that are primarily peculiar to
spoken English, and sound and intonation distinctions that have proven to be
difficult for nonnative speakers. The stimulus material is recorded in standard
American English; the response options are printed in the test books.
Section 2, Structure and Written Expression, measures mastery of
important structural and grammatical points in standard written English. The
language tested is formal, rather than conversational. The topics of the
sentences are of a general academic nature so that individuals in specific
fields of study or from specific national or linguistic groups have no
particular advantage. When topics have a national context, they refer to United
States history, culture, art, or literature.
Section 3, Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension, tests the ability
to understand the meanings and uses of words in written English as well as the
ability to understand a variety of reading materials. So that there is no
advantage to individuals in any one field of study, the questions based on
reading materials do not require outside knowledge of the subject matter.
Diagnostic and Placement Tests
A diagnostic test is designed to diagnose
a particular aspect of a particular language. Some proficiency tests can
serve as diagnostic tests by isolating and analyzing certain sets of items
within the test. An achievement test on a particular module in a curriculum
might include a number of items on modal auxiliaries; these particular items
could serve to diagnose difficulty on modals.
A
placement test typically includes a sampling of material to be covered in the
curriculum (that is, it has content validity), and it thereby provides an
indication of the point at which the student will find a level or class to be
neither too easy nor too difficult but to be appropriately challenging.
Achievement Tests
An achievement test is related directly to
classroom lessons, units, or even a total curriculum. Achievement tests are
limited to particular material covered in a curriculum within a particular time
frame.
Aptitude Tests
Finally, we need to consider the type of test that is given to a
person prior to any exposure to the second language, a test that predicts a
person's future success. A foreign language aptitude test is
designed to measure a person's capacity or general ability to learn a foreign
language and to be successful in that undertaking. Aptitude tests are
considered to be independent of a particular foreign language, predicting
success in the acquisition of any foreign language.
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