Post on 06-Apr-2018
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1) Test Types
a) Language Aptitude Tests b) Proficiency Tests
c) Placement Tests d) Diagnostic Tests
e) Achievement Tests
2) Some Practical Steps to Test Construction
a) Assessing Clear, Unambiguous Objectives
b) Drawing Up Test Specifications
c) Devising Test Tasks
d) Designing Multiple-Choice Test Items
I.Design each item to measure a specific objective
II.State both stem and options as simply and directly as possible
III.Make certain that the intended answer is clearly the only correct one
IV. Use item indices to accept, discard, or revise items
3) Scoring, Grading, and Giving Feedback
a) Scoring b) Grading c) Giving Feedback
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Before start:
a) What is the purpose of the test?
b) What are the objectives of the test?
c) How will the test specifications reflect thepurpose and the objectives?
d) How will the test tasks be selected and theseperate items arranged?
e) What kind of scoring, grading and/or feedback is expected?
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TEST TYPES
1) Language aptitude test
2) Proficiency test
3) Placement test
4) Diagnostic test
5) Achievement test
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1)Language aptitude test:
•Predicts capacity & general ability to learn
• It has limitation and flaw- prediction is not easy
• Two standardized tests in the US: MLAT & PLAB
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Task in the modern language aptitude test (MLAT)
1. Number learning : Examinees must learn a set of numbers
through aural input and then discriminate different
combination of those numbers.
2. Phonetic script : Examinees must team a set of
correspondences between speech sounds and phonetic
symbols.
3. Spelling dues : Examinees must need words that are spelledsome what phonetically
4. Word in sentence : Examinees are given a key word in a
sentence and are then asked to select a word in second
sentence that performs the same grammatical action as thekey word.
5. Paired associates : Examinees must quickly team a set of
vocabulary words from another language and memorize their
English meaning.
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2) Proficiency test:
• Not limited to any one course, curriculum, or
single skill ( grammar- vocabulary- reading etc)
• Recently writing and oral production
• Measures overall ability
• Traditionally composed of multiple choice items
• Summative and norm-referenced
• Provides sufficient results
• No diagnostic feedback
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3) Placement Test
• aims to place a student into a particular level
or section of language curriculum or school
• has various types: comprehension and
production questions, responding through
written and oral performance, selection
(multiple - choice) and gap-filling formats
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4) Diagnostic Test
• Provides information on what to focus later
• Shows lacks, difficulties, misunderstandings etc
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5) Achievement Tests
• Should be limited to particular
material (content-time)
• needs to be related to classroom
lessons, units, or a total curriculum
• supposed to be in accordance
with the objectives
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ASSESSING CLEAR, AMBIGIOUS OBJECTIVES
• First step while designing a test
• Set clear and specific objectives
Do they “know” or are they able to do?
(based on the material)
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DRAWING UP TEST SPECIFICATIONS
Test specifications for classroom use can be
a simple and practical outline of your test.
(a) a broad outline of the test(b) what skills you will test
(c) what the items will look like.
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ADVANTAGES OF DRAWING UP TEST SPECIFICATIONS
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DEVISING TEST TASKS
• Draft the questions
• Revise the draft
• Request aid from colleague
* imagine yourself as astudent who write this
test
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While revising the draft:
1)Are the directions to each section clear?
2) Is there an example item for each section?3) Does each item measure a specified objective?
4) Is each item stated in clear, simple language?
5) Are the multiple choice items, distracters appropriate?6) Is the difficulty of each item appropriate?
7) Is the language authentic?
8) Does the test reflect the learning objectives?
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DESIGNING MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST ITEMS
• receptive and selective, not productive
• a stem and several options or alternatives to
choose from
• One of those options, the key, is the correct
response, while the others serve as
distractions.
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“ Written properly, multiple choice exams
correlate strongly with assessments by
descriptive tests ” Brown, Robert, “Multiple Choice Versus Descriptive Tests”
Frontiers in Education Conference, Reno NC 2001.
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Possible problems (Hughes, 2003)
•Only recognition knowledge
•Guessing ???
•Restricted
•Difficult to write
•Harmful washback
•Cheating ???
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Number ofQuestions
Percent Pass (≥50%) by Chance2 choices 3 choices 4 choices 5 choices
1 50 33 25 20
2 75 56 44 36
4 69 41 26 18
6 66 32 17 10
10 62 21 8 3
20 59 9.2 1.4 .3
50 56 1 .01 .0004
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Multiple Choice vs. Descriptive
Examinations
Descriptive
Questions
MultipleChoice
Setting the exam Easy Difficult
Grading Task Difficult Easy
Grading Time Long Short
Grade Consistency Varies High
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1. Design each item to measure a specific objective
Where did George go after party last night ?
a. Yes, he did
b. Because he was tired
c. To Elaine’s place for another partyd. Around eleven o’clock.
Example:
The specific objective being tested here is comprehension of
wh-questions. Distractor (a) is designed to ascertain that the
student knows the difference between an answer to a why-question and a yes/no question. Distractors (b) and (d), as well
as the key item (c) test comprehension of the meaning of where
as opposed to why and when. The objective has been directly
addressed.
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2. State both stem and options as simply and directly
as possible
Example:
We went to the temples ___________ fascinating.
a) which were beautifulb) which were especially
c) which were holy
“which were” is repeated in all three options. It should beplaced into the stem.
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3. Make certain that the intended answer is clearly the
only correct one
Example:
Where did George go after party last night ?
a. Yes, he did
b. Because he was tired
c. To Elaine’s place for another party
d. He went home around eleven o’clock.
Distractor D seems to be acceptable as well, so it should
be omitted.
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4. Use item indices to accept, discard or revise items
a) Item facility (easy or difficult?)
b) Item discrimination (differentiating low-ability and highability
students)
c) Distractor efficiency (appropriate or not?)
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Scoring, Grading, and Giving Feed Back
SCORING
•reflects the relative weight that you place on each
section and items in each season.
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Grading
The country, and context of this English
classroom, Institutional expectations (most of them
unwritten), implicit definitions of grades that you have set
forth
Explicit and relationship you have established with this class
The expectations that have been engendered in previous
tests and quizzes in this class
Student expectations
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FEEDBACK
Classroom test – insider the multitude of options. You might choose to return the
test to the student with one of or a combination of, any of the possibilities below.
1. A latter grade
2. A Total Score
3. Four Sub scores (speaking, listening, reading, writing)
4. For the listening and reading sections
a. An individuate of correct/incorrect responses
b. Marginal comments
5. For the oral interview
a. Scores for each element being rated
b. A checklist of areas needing work
c. Oral feedback after the interview
d. A post-interview conference to go over the results
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6. On the essay
a. Scores for each element being rated
b. A checklist of areas needing work
c. Marginal and end-of-essay comments, suggestions
d. A post-test conference to go over work
e. A self-assessment
7. On all or selected parts of the test, peer checking of results
8. a whole-class discussion of result of the test
9. Individual conferences with each student to review the whole
test
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Interpreting test scores Teachers
High scores = good instruction
Low scores = poor studentsStudents
High scores = smart, well-prepared
Low scores = poor teaching, bad test
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Interpreting test scores
High scorestoo easy, only measured simple educationalobjectives, biased scoring, cheating,unintentional clues to right answers
Low scores
too hard, tricky questions, content notcovered in class, grader bias, insufficient time
to complete test