HAVE YOU CONSTRUCTED
APPROPRIATE LANGUAGE
ASSESSMENT FOR STUDENTS?:
Strategies in Constructing
Good Language Assessment
Instructor:
X.A.Normuminova
Things to discuss
1. student’s language score validity and reliability
2. strategies to construct a good language
assessment
Phenomena
• Testing & assessment seriously affect the lives
of:
• test takers,
• institutions, and
• society.
• Mismatches between students’ English
language test score and their academic
performance (Fulcher, 2014)
STUDENT’S LANGUAGE SCORE
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
Questions
• Why do students’ english language test score mismatch
their academic performance (Fulcher, 2014)?
• Why do students score lower or higher than our
expectation?
Things Influencing Test Takers’
Score
(Marcellino, 2014)
• Test method facets
• Attributes
• Random Factors
• Physical
• Psychological
Students’ characteristics
Bachman & Palmer (1996: 64-78)
• Personal characteristics;
• Students’ knowledge of the topic;
• Students’ affective schemata;
• Students’ language ability.
Mayo & Lecumberri (2003): Age interacts with:
• attitudes,
• motivation,
• the length of exposure to the target language,
• the nature and quality of language instruction.
Things influencing teachers’
different score
(Heaton, 1988:144)
• Spread of marks
• Strictness
• Rank order
STRATEGIES TO CONSTRUCT A
GOOD LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
How to construct a good language
assessment?
• Teacher training: test construction & scoring
• Validity and reliability guarantee
• Scoring
• Rubric
• Reflection and evaluation
TEACHER TRAINING TO CONSTRUCT
ASSESSMENT
Models of language assessment, for example:
• Harris (1969)
• Carroll (1980)
• Bachman (1990)
• Alderson, Clapham, & Wall (1995)
• Hughes (2003)
• Bachman & Palmer (2010)
TEACHER TRAINING TO CONSTRUCT
ASSESSMENT
(Taken from Coleman, n.d.:10)
(Taken from Coleman, n.d.:11)
(Taken from Coleman, n.d.:12)
(Taken from Coleman, n.d.:13)
A good language assessment is:
• Reliable
• Valid
• Washback
• Practical
• Authentic
(Brown & Abeywickrama, 2010)
• Reliable
• Valid
• Washback
• Doable
• Practical
• Economic
(Rethinasamy, 2014)
RELIABILITY & VALIDITY
relationship
• A test must be reliable.
• A test cannot be valid unless it is reliable.
• A test is possibly reliable, but not valid.
TIPS on SCORING
• Stop if you are not in a good mood
• Ask colleagues to check your scoring
SCORING: RUBRIC
• Holistic  Overall judgment, e.g. Speaking
• Analytic  Individual characteristics, e.g.
Composition
Is having a rubric sufficient
enough?
NEVER;
Utilize it and make it
yours
REFLECTION AND EVALUATION
Things to reflect during test construction...
• What is the purpose of the test?
• How will the test specification reflects the purpose?
• How will the test tasks be selected and the separate items
arranged?
• What kind of scoring, grading, and/or feedback is expected?
(Barit, 2009)
More questions to address...
• Is it clear what the exam should test?
• Is it clear what the exam should test compared to other
universities/schools?
• Does the exam in fact test what it should test?
• Does the exam test the same things in all classes/ student
categories so that the results are comparable?
• Does the exam test the same things every year so that results
are comparable?
• Does the exam relate to national or international descriptions
of educational standards?
(Sigott, 2009:3)
“Assessing students’
language proficiency is a
long journey; very timethought-energyconsuming process”