Matakuliah : G0444 / MATERIAL DESIGN and TESTING
Tahun
: 2009
Pertemuan 17
ACHIVEMENT TESTS :
 Test which are directly related to language courses, their purpose being to establish
how successful individual students, groups of students, or the courses themselves
have been in achieving objectives.
 They are of two kinds : final achievement tests and progress achievement tests.
 Final achievement Tests:
are those administered at the end of a course of study.
 Progress achievement Tests:
are intended to measure the progress that students are making.
3
Formal tests : are usually done at the end of a year or before starting a new
course, etc.
Informal tests: such as progress test.
4
Why is it important to give regular tests to the class :
1. They tell TEACHER:
- what the students can & cannot do
- how successful the teaching has been
- what areas need to be taught in the future
2. They tell STUDENTS:
- how well they are progressing
- where they need to focus their attention as learners
Regular tests also encourage students to take their learning seriously, and
give them a series of definite goals to aim towards.
5
PROFICIENCY TESTS
 Tests which are designed to measure people’s ability in a
language regardless of any training they may have had in that
language.
 The content of a proficiency test, therefore, is not based on the
content or objectives of language courses which people may
have followed. Rather, it is based on a specification of what
candidates have to be able to do in the language in order to be
considered proficient.
6
Proficiency Tests

In the case of some proficiency tests, “proficient” means having
sufficient command of the language for a particular purpose.

For example a test used to determine whether a student’s English is
good enough to follow a course of study at a British university.

There are other proficiency tests which do not have any course of
study in mind. For them the concept of proficiency is more general, for
example : the Cambridge Examinations (First Certificate Examination) and
the Oxford EFL examinations.
7
DIAGNOSTIC TESTS
They are used to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses.
They are intended primarily to ascertain what further teaching
is necessary. The lack of good diagnostic tests is unfortunate.
They could be extremely useful for individualized instruction
or self-instruction. Learners would be shown where gaps exist
in their command of the language, and could be directed to
sources of information, exemplification and practice.
8
PLACEMENT TESTS
They are intended to provide information which will help to
place students at the stage of the teaching program most
appropriate to their abilities. Typically they are used to assign
students to classes at different levels.
The placement tests which are most successful are those
constructed for particular situations. They depend on the
identification of the key features at different levels of teaching
in the institution. They are tailor made.
9
TYPES OF TESTS
WHAT SHOULD WE TEST ?
 Grade doesn’t really tell either the T or the Sts very much
unless they know exactly what the grade is based on.
 One St maybe very good at listening but bad at writing, another St may speak
fluently but make many grammar mistakes, and so on.
 So, in order to comment on a students’ progress, we need to
test particular skills and abilities.
To test language :
To test skills :
Grammar
Vocabulary
Spelling
Pronunciation
Listening
Reading
Speaking
Writing
10
Work Activity :
Look at the 5 questions below and discuss with your friends
Specific skills and abilities which you could test your
students to find out:
1. Can they follow street directions ?
2. Can they form the past simple tense correctly ?
3. Can they write a few sentences about their family ?
4. Do they know common words for rooms and furniture ?
5. Can they understand a simple description of their town ?
11
Answers:
1. Listening (and Vocabulary )
2. Grammar
3. Writing ( and Grammar, Vocabulary )
4. Vocabulary
5. Reading or Listening ( and Vocabulary )
12