7/26/2019 Critical Reflection of Language Assessment in Year 4 Class

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Critical Refection

Language Assessment is a subject made compulsory for all PISMP TESL

students of the January 2!" inta#e$ This subject%s main purpose is to e&uip

teacher trainee 'ith in depth understanding about the mechanism of a language

assessment and the s#ill to put the #no'ledge to practice$ (or this subject) 'e

'ere assigned to collect a sample of *SS+ le,el 2 test papers used in the Primary

ESL classroom and analy-e the test to see ho' much it adheres to the four basic

principles of language assessment$

 The obser,ation and study carried out in the part of the assignment is

utili-ed to plan) design and carry out a test based on a particular language s#ills

in a learning session in the classroom$ I found that the obser,ation and analy-ingprocess carried out on the sample test paper played a signi.cant role in helping

me constructing the test$ /ne of the important things that I learned in

constructing test is to 'or# bac#'ards$ I plan on ho' I 'ant the ans'ers to be

li#e .rst) and only then I plan the &uestions$ In order to produce a reliable test) I

ha,e to ensure that the test is consistent in producing results 'hen it is rated by

more than one rater$ Since the test 'as conducted in a classroom session 'here

'e carried out pair teaching) I ha,e decided to create a .0ed formula on mar#ing

the papers$ The objecti,e &uestions 'ere &uite con,enient as I only ha,e to list

the correct ans'ers for it$ As for the t'o subjecti,e &uestions) I ha,e agreed 'ith

my partner to gi,e mar#s to ans'ers that are understandable in terms of 

meaning$

1onsidering that the pupils% le,el is mi0ed) 'e decided to gi,e mar# to the

ans'ers that deli,ers the meaning correctly and tolerate the grammatical error

as long as it is at a controllable rate$ Someho' to ma#e the mar#ing instruction

more clear and de.ned) the mar# can only be gi,en if the ans'er deli,ers anunderstandable meaning) and the pupils can ha,e at most 2 grammatical errors

only to still earn their mar#s$ Ans'ers that ha,e " or more errors 'ill not be

a'arded any mar#s$ The grammatical errors are tolerated at a controlled rate

here because the focused s#ills in this test is reading s#ills and not grammar) so

emphasis is gi,en on comprehension and pupils% ability to understand the topic

and #no' ho' to respond in the right conte0t$ Someho') diculty still arise in

mar#ing the subjecti,e ans'ers as pupils tend to gi,e ans'ers that is ,ery much

ali#e for both subjecti,e &uestions$ I should re,ise the subjecti,e &uestion in

7/26/2019 Critical Reflection of Language Assessment in Year 4 Class

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greater details before allo'ing the pupils ans'er them to a,oid ambiguity in the

&uestions$

Another aspect that help me construct this test is the ,alidity$ (ace ,alidity

is one of the aspect of ,alidity in language tests$ The &uestions that I ha,econstructed on the 'or#sheet in a 'ay achie,ed the face ,alidity as it contains

multiple choice &uestions 'hich ha,e standard 3 choices of ans'ers li#e those

that they encountered in any formal tests before$ The physical loo# of a test

really helped the students to ta#e the test more seriously and really put their

thoughts in ans'ering it$ /n the other hand) Siddie# 42!5 addresses the

importance of content ,alidity by saying that content ,alidity depends on the

representati,eness of items included on the test$ This ,ie' helped me to

construct the &uestions to be closely related to the topic and the topic only$ All

the &uestions I constructed for the test are speci.cally about the ants% colony

'hich is a part of The Insect In,estigators topic that I taught in the lesson that

day$ In other 'ords) I ha,e pro,ided enough information and practice for the

pupils to ans'er the &uestions I ha,e prepared$

Practicality in language test co,ers a 'ide range of elements$ Arsyad Abd$

Samad 42!5 proposed that practicality issues consist of matters li#e cost) time

planning) scoring procedures and the ease of interpretation$ 6ased on this ,ie'on practicality) I decided to ma#e the test cost and time e7ecti,e$ The test

consists of ! &uestions 'hich 8 of them being multiple choice &uestions ant the

other 2 are subjecti,e &uestions$ The 2 minutes gi,en for the test is a sucient

and logical amount of time to be used to ans'er that amount of &uestions for a

mi0ed ability class$ 9ot to mention) I managed to #eep the cost at a minimum

le,el as it only in,ol,es papers as 'or#sheets$

 The ease for interpretation on the hand is applied in the multiple choice&uestions$ The nature of the multiple choice &uestion itself that is high in

objecti,ity helps the pupils to interpret the &uestions 'ithout ha,ing

misconceptions about the conte0t$ The distracters for the ans'ers are e&ually

distracting and the correct ans'er is fairly clear as most pupils managed to

choose the correct ans'ers$ This is pro,en by the score of the test 'here the

score recorded by the pupils ranges from : to ! 'ith one correct#y ans'ered

&uestion 'orth one mar#$ I ha,e accomplished the objecti,e of the test to enable

them to ans'er at least : out of ! &uestions correctly$

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Someho' I could impro,e the 'ashbac# e7ect in the practicality aspect by

ma#ing the amount of objecti,e and subjecti,e &uestions more balanced$ Instead

of ma#ing the ratio of objecti,e &uestion to subjecti,e &uestion 8 ; 2) I should

change it it to : ; 3$ 6y increasing the number of the subjecti,e &uestions) I could

also increase the positi,e 'ashbac# e7ect as the 'ritten corrections in the

subjecti,e &uestions are more speci.c and impactful to help the pupils to be

a'are of the area that needs impro,ements$

Another aspect that needs impro,ement is the authenticity in the test$ I

'as restricted by the topic itself) 'hich is The Insect In,estigators and it results

in all the &uestions being focused on comprehension only$ (ray) Scmidt and Allen

42!25 agree that an authentic test is the one that mirrors real 'orld tas#s and

e0pectations$ In this case) authenticity means that the test should include

&uestions that imply situations that could happen in real life$ I could ma#e the

&uestions more authentic by altering the form of the subjecti,e &uestions from

merely being a structured &uestions to a dialogue or something more

communicati,e$

In conclusion) the test that I ha,e designed) constructed and applied

generally obeys the basic principles of language assessment$ It is fairly reliable

and practical$ The test that I conducted is a decent test and it can be a good oneby impro,ing the 'ritten part of the test to ma#e it more e7ecti,e in promoting

positi,e 'ashbac# e7ects and e0posing pupils to more real life conte0t

&uestions$