Texto ingles

Language Assessment: Principles and Issues

Testing, Assessment, and Teaching

Principles of Language Assessment

Kinds of Test

Historical Developments in Language Assessment

Current Issues in Language Assessment

Practicality:

"-Norm-Referenced: Place test-taker's along a mathematical continuum in order of rank

-Criterion- Referenced: Gives feedback on specific Course or lesson objectives"

Reliability:

-Construction of test and it's test reliability

-The administration of a test

-The test-taker, known as student-related reliability

-The scoring of the test, known as rater reliability

-Test: "A method of measuring a person's ability or knowledge in a given domain, with an emphasis on on the concepts of method and measuring"(p.445)

-Assessment:"An ongoing process that encompasses a much wider domain" (formal and assessment)(p.445)

-Teaching:"Sets up the practice games of language learning, the opportunities for learners to listen, think, take risks, set goals, and process feedback"

-Proficiency Tests: Measure the language level of a student

-Diagnostic Tests: Identifies specific areas of weakness and strength of an individual

-Placement Tests: it determines the academic capacity of a new student

-Achievement Tests: Measures the knowledge or dominance of an individual in something that has been learned or taught

-Aptitude Tests: Determines a person's ability in a particular skill or field of knowledge

Validity: the degree to which the test actually measures what it is intended to measure

-Content Validity: If actually samples the subject matter about which conclusions are to be drawn. If it the test-taker to perform the behavior that being measured

-Face Validity:Have face validity if "seems" is going to measure what it is supposed to measure

-Construct Validity:The degree to which a test measures what it claims, or intends, to measure

Authenticity: The language in the test is as natural as possible, items contextualized rather than isolated, topics are interesting; enjoyable and humorous; some thematic organization to items is provided, such as through a story line, and task represent real-world task

Washback:feedback in form of useful diagnoses of strenghts and weaknesses

-1950's Behaviorism: focused on phonological, grammatical, and lexical contrasts between two languages

-1970's - 1980's: The whole of communication instead of linguistic elements

-Today:

(Discrete-Point Test) language can be broken down into components; listening, speaking, reading, writing, and hierarchical units of language

(Integrative Test) Cloze Tests: Delet words

Dictations: Careful listening, reproduction in writing, and short term memory.

-Large-Scale Language Proficiency Testing: language testing (TOEFL,IELTS, TOEIC)a problem is its cost, also Taks need to be designed to mirror language tasks of the real world, The crux of the issue lies in finding ways to tap into the communicative abilities of language users

-Authenticity:Focus in language pedagogy on communication and interactive testing (ideas, opinions, impressions, reactions…), they are difficult to create and evaluate

-Performance-based assessment: Involves: open-ended problem solving tasks, hands-on projects, student portfolios, experiments, tasks in various genres of writing, and group projects, it's difficult time distinguishing between formal and informal testing.

-Challenges from Innovative Theories of Intelligence: standard theories of intelligence (inter- and intrapersonal, spatial, kinesthetic, contextual, and emotional intelligence)

-Expanding “alternatives” in classroom-Based Assessment: Teachers more involved in the creation of their own instruments and/or the willing adaption (classroom-based assessment)

-Ethical Issues: Critical Assessment: Tests are embedded in culture & ideology,and standardized tests are "infallible" in their predictive validity

By: Jienth J. Lancheros