Matakuliah
Tahun
: <<Kode>>/<<Nama mtkul>>
: <<Tahun Pembuatan>>
Teaching and Testing
Pertemuan 13
1
Topics :
1.
Backwash effect
2.
Inaccurate Tests
3.
The need for tests
4.
Achieving beneficial backwash
2
THE NEED FOR TESTS
Information about people’s language ability is often very
useful and sometimes necessary :
1. to give a statement of what they have achieved in a
second or foreign language,
2. to provide information about the achievement of
groups of learners to see how rational educational
decisions can be made.
3
INACCURATE TESTS
Language abilities are not easy to measure, we cannot
expect a level of accuracy comparable to those of
measurements in the physical sciences.
4
WHY ARE TESTS INACCURATE ?
1. Test content and Techniques :
When testing is carried out on a very large scale, when
the scoring of tens of thousands of compositions might
seem not to be a practical proposition, it is
understandable that potentially greater accuracy is
sacrificed for reasons of economy and convenience.
5
2. Lack of Reliability :
A test is reliable if it measures consistently. On a reliable
test you can be so confident that someone will get more
or less the same score, whether they happen to take it
on one particular day or on the next.
6
BACKWASH
Backwash is the effect of testing on teaching and learning.
It can be harmful or beneficial :
a. if a test is regarded as important, then preparation for it
can come to dominate all teaching and learning activities.
b. if the test content and testing techniques are at
variance with the objective of the course, then there is
likely to be harmful backwash.
We cannot expect testing only to follow teaching, but it should be
supportive of good teaching and, where necessary, exert a corrective
influence on bad teaching.
7
ACHIEVING BENEFICIAL BACKWASH:
HOW?
1. Test the abilities whose development you want
to encourage:
(e.g. if you want to encourage oral ability, then test oral ability.)
 There is a tendency to test what it is easiest to test rather
than what it is most important to test because :
a. sufficiently high reliability cannot be obtained
when a form of testing requires subjective scoring,
b. the expense involved in terms of time and money.
8
2. Sample widely and unpredictably:
 It is important that the sample taken should represent as far as
possible the full scope of what is specified. If not, if the sample is
taken from a restricted area of the specifications, then the
backwash effect will tend to be felt only in that area
 Whenever the content of a test becomes highly predictable,
teaching & learning are likely to concentrate on what can be
predicted. An effort should therefore be made to test across the
full range of the specifications ( fully elaborated set of
objectives).
9
3. Use direct Testing
If we test directly the skills that we are interested in fostering, then
practice for the test represents practice in those skills. If we want
people to learn to write compositions, we should get them to write
compositions in the test.
4. Make testing Criterion – referenced
If test specifications make clear just what candidates have to be
able to do, and with what degree of success, then students will have
a clear picture of what they have to achieve. What is more, they
know that if they do perform the task at the criteria level, then they
will be successful on the test, regardless of how other students
perform.
10
5. Base Achievement Tests on objectives
If achievement tests are based on objectives, rather than on detailed
teaching and textbook content, they will provide a truer picture of
what has actually been achieved. Teaching and learning will tend to
be evaluated against those objectives. As a result, these will be
constant pressure to achieve them.
6. Ensure test is known and understood by students
and teachers
However good the potential backwash effect of a test may be, the
effect will not be fully realized if students and those responsible for
teaching do not know and understand what the test demands of
them. The rationale for the test, its specifications, and sample items
should be made available to everyone concerned with preparation
for the test. This is particularly important when a new test is being
introduced.
11
7. Where necessary, provide assistance to teachers
The introduction of a new test may make demands on teachers to
which they are not equal. One important reason for introducing the
new test may have been to encourage communicative language
teaching, but if the teachers need guidance and possibly training,
and these are not given, the test will not achieve its intended effect.
It may simply cause chaos and disaffection. Where new tests are
meant to help change teaching, support has to be given to help
effect the change.
12
8. Counting the cost
One of the desirable qualities of tests, after validity and reliability, is
that of practicality.
It is good that a test should be easy and cheap to construct,
administer, score and interpret.
When we compare the cost of the test with the waste of effort and
time on the part of teachers and students in activities quite
inappropriate to their true learning goals, we are likely to decide that
we cannot afford not to introduce a test with a powerful beneficial
backwash effect.
13