PREPARED BY RAZİYE ŞENGÜL
EVALUATION,ASSESSMENT AND
TESTING
 EVALUATION : It involves looking at all factors that
influences the learning process, i.e., syllabus
objectives, course design and materials.
 ASSESSMENT : It refers to a variety of ways of
collecting information on a learner’s language ability
or achievement. It is an umbrella term for all measures
used to evaluate student progress.
 TESTING : It is a subcategory of assessment. It is a
systematic procedure used to gather information
about students’ behaviour.
TYPES OF TESTS
 PLACEMENT TESTS : They assess students’ level of language
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ability so they can be placed in an appropriate course or class.
APTITUDE TESTS : They measure capacity or general ability to
learn a foreign language.
DIAGNOSTIC TESTS : They identify language areas in which a
student needs further help. They are based on failure.
PROGRESS TESTS : They measure the progress that students are
making toward defined course or program goals.
ACHIEVEMENT TESTS : They are based on the progress of a
specific course content and they are usually administered at mid
or end of the semester.
PROFICIENCY TESTS : They assess the overall language ability
of students at varying levels or in a particular skill area.
TEST PURPOSE
Additional ways of labeling tests
TRADITIONAL versus ALTERNATIVE
ASSESSMENT
TYPES OF ALTERNATIVE
ASSESSMENT
 SELF ASSESSMENT : It allows the students to provide feedback on
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their own work or that of their peers.
PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT : It is a collection of student works that
are associated with standards you are required to learn.
STUDENT-DESIGNED TESTS : Students in upper year courses might
be involved in designing exam questions, reading questions or even
entire assignment that they would like to complete in order to
demonstrate their learning.
PROJECTS: Students learn about a subject by working for an extended
period of time to investigate and respond to a complex question,
challenge, or problem.
PRESENTATIONS: It usually consists of a topic for the student to
research, discuss and present. Question and answer session is usually
included after the presentation. This measures the ability of students to
respond, think under pressure and manage discussion.
TIMING OF THE TEST
 - APTITUDE, ADMISSIONS AND PROFICIENCY
TESTS are applied before or outside the program.
 -PLACEMENT AND DIAGNOSTIC TESTS occur at the
start of the program.
 -PROGRESS AND AND ACHIEVEMENT TESTS take
place during the course.
 -MASTERY OR CERTIFICATION TESTS occur at the
end of the program.
THE CORNERSTONES OF TESTING
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USEFULNESS
VALIDITY
RELIABILITY
PRACTICALITY
WASHBACK
AUTHENTICITY
TRANSPARENCY
SECURITY
MANAGEABILITY
REFERENCING
USEFULNESS
 Any language test must be developed with a specific
purpose, a particular group of test-takers and a specific
language use in mind. It is the most important quality
of testing.
VALIDITY
 It means the test assesses the course content and
outcomes using formats familiar to the students. The
types of validity :
 1-CONTENT VALIDITY: A test should sample the
subject matter and require the test-taker to perform
the behaviour that is being measured. For example, .
If you are trying to assess a person's ability to speak a
second language in a conversational setting, asking the
learner to answer, paper-and-pencil multiple-choice
questions requiring grammatical judgments does not
achieve content validity
 2-CRITERION RELATED VALIDITY: It means the
extent to which the criterion of the test has actually
been reached.For example, A classroom test designed
to assess mastery of a point of grammar in
communicative use will have criterion validity if test
scores are corroborated either by observed subsequent
behavior or by other communicative measures of the
grammar point in question.
 3-CONSTRUCT VALIDITY : A test has to test those
attributes it is supposed to. For example, if we want to
test reading.we need to examine all the underlying
skills involved such as reading both aloud and
silently,with accuracy,fluency and verve.
 4-CONSEQUENTIAL VALIDITY: It encompasses all
the consequences of a test, including such
considerations as its accuracy in measuring intended
criteria, its impact on the preparation of test-takers,
its effect on the learner, and the (intended and
unintended) social consequences of a test's
interpretation and use.
 5-FACE VALIDITY : refers to the degree to which a test
looks right, and appears to measure the knowledge or
abilities it claims to measure, based on the subjective
judgment of the test-takers. Face validity is not
something that can be empirically tested by a teacher
or even by a testing expert. It is purely a factor of the
"eye of the beholder"-how the test-taker, or possibly
the test giver, intuitively perceives the instrument.
RELIABILITY
 It refers to the consistency of test scores, which simply
means that a test would offer similar results if it were given
at another time. Three important factors affect test
reliability :
 Fluctuations in the learner such as additional learning,
forgetting, sickness or emotional problems that affect the
results.
 Fluctuations in scoring such as subjectivity, mechanical
errors that affect the results.
 Fluctuations in test administration such as inconsistent
administrative procedures and testing conditions that
affect the results.
PRACTICALITY
 A teacher should be able to develop, administer and
mark the test within the available time and with
available resources. Also the feedback from assessment
should be understood by the students.
WASHBACK
 It refers to to the effect of testing on teaching and learning.
 Formative tests, by definition, provide washback in the
form of information to the learner on progress toward
goals. But teachers might be tempted to feel that
summative tests, which provide assessment at the end of a
course or program, do not need to offer much in the way of
washback. Such an attitude is unfortunate because the end
of every language course or program is always the
beginning of further pursuits, more learning, more goals,
and more challenges to face. Even a final examination in a
course should carry with it some means for giving
washback to students.
AUTHENTICITY
 When you make a claim for authenticity in a test task, you 'are saying
that this task is likely to be enacted in the "real world." Many test item
types fail to simulate real-world tasks.They may be artificial in their
attempt to target a grammatical form or a lexical item.
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In a test, authenticity may be present in the following ways:
The language in the test is as natural as possible.
Items are contextualized rather than isolated.
Topics are meaningful (relevant, interesting) for the learner.
Some thematic organization to items is provided, such as through a
story line or episode.
Tasks represent, or closely approximate, real-world tasks.
TRANSPARENCY
 It refers to the availability of clear, accurate
information to students about testing. Such
information should include outcomes to be evaluated,
formats used,weighting of items and sections, time
allowed to complete the test and grading criteria.
MANAGEABILITY
 The assessment task must not take excessive
administrative time so that the costs do not outweigh
the benefits.
REFERENCING (JUDGING
PERFORMANCE)
 NORM REFERENCING : It is a system of assessment that
judges the performance of an individual within a group
against the whole group’s performance. If the sample is
large enough, it will form a bell-shaped curve with the
same mean and standard deviation as the whole
population.
 CRITERION REFERENCING: It is the principle of defining
what is required before a test is sat and then judging the
individuals against those criteria. For example, in order to
get a swimming certificate, the criteria will be that you have
to swim a certain distance within a certain time. You might
be the last but it is irrelevant if you do it in the time.
THANKS FOR LISTENING…