Validity and Reliability in Testing ELT – Article 1

Article’s name is “Reliability and content validity of an English as a Foreign

Language (EFL) grade-level test for Turkish primary grade students”. Written by:
Ipek Ozer, Shawn M. Fitzgerald, Ebed Sulbaran, Diana Garvey in 2013 for
“International Conference on Education & Educational Psychology 2013 (ICEEPSY
2013)” in United States of America. The present study examined the reliability and
content validity of an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) grade-level test for
Turkish 3rd grade primary students. While the Content Validity Index (CVI) was
found to be low (.52), the reliability coefficients varied between .77 and .91 for the
sub-subsections, indicating high reliability of the items. The item difficulty and
discrimination indices were also consistent with the CVI as 50% of the items were
identified as being in need of revision.
The content validity was resulted in recommending the revision of the EFL test
items. Of course, the CVI was also in parallel with the item difficulty and
discrimination analysis outcomes. Hence, nearly %50 of the test items were identified
as being in need of revision. To revise the test items, the instructions for some sections
were found to be necessary to edit. A variety of analysis is applied to evaluate the
quality of the EFL exam. Most schools around the world use standardized tests to
assess students at each level of their educational experience. In some cases,
standardized tests are developed and administered by particular entities, such as a
Board or Ministry of Education, while other tests are administered by departments
within schools. Many schools have utilized standardized EFL tests in order to assess
student ability and progress in this domain and several empirical research articles have
provided evidence of these practices. The participants of this study were 3rd grade-
level students from a private primary school in Turkey. Thirty-eight of the students
were female (53.5%) while 33 were males (46.5%). During the 2011-2012 academic
year, test-takers were taught the same level of English with the curriculum provided
by the Turkish government.
This research has already applied in Turkey to measure the 3rd graders exams. In
my opinion, in order to accurately assess the EFL development of students within one
school system in Turkey, school administrators and a research team developed a pilot
test of one standardized assessment designed for this purpose. The main purpose of
this study was to evaluate the quality of an EFL test for 3rd graders and offer
empirical evidence related to its use as a standardized test. I learned that; given that
many schools develop and use their own standardized tests, ones that closely match
the curriculum objectives set locally or internally, it is imperative that administrators
and staff develop these tests in a technically appropriate manner to ensure both valid
and reliable results and the fair use of test results.
Validity and Reliability in Testing ELT – Article 2
Article’s name is “VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF ENGLISH
SUMMATIVE TEST FOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL”. Written by: Aris Sugianto in
2017 in Indonesia. This present study aims to analyze statistically the validity and
reliability of English summative test for the second semester of the tenth graders of
SMAN 2 Palangka Raya in academic year 2015/2016. The writer used descriptive
quantitative approach to find the result. In analyzing the validity, the writer used
Point-biserial correlation formula, while to analyze the reliability, the writer used K-
R20 formula. The validity was analyzed based on test item, and the validity of the
whole test was determined based on the percentage of all valid items. The result was
that the English summative test was valid and reliable. Specifically, from 50 items of
questions, 32 items (64%) were valid and 18 items (36%) were invalid. Interpreted
from the 64% of valid items, so overall the summative test was valid in substantial
level. The summative test was also reliable. The coefficient of reliability was .907.
Therefore, the reliability was in the level of excellent reliability.
Test is one of good important part in teaching and learning process. There are
the components which relate each other actually in teaching and learning process.
They are goal, activity, and evaluation. Goal is the purpose of the lesson, activity is the
process or activity in classroom itself, and evaluation is the procedure to measure the
success of the goal and the activity. Test is a kind of evaluation which is as instrument
of measurement of teaching and learning process, instrument to see the ability/
achievement of students, or instrument to take educational decision. It is known that a
test should fulfil standard or characteristics of a good test. Based on theories, there are
five characteristics of a good test. They are: 1) the test should be valid, 2) the test
should be reliable, 3) the test should be objective, 4) the test should be practicable,
and 5) the test should be economic. From these five characteristics of a good test, the
two firsts are the most important; they should be valid and reliable.
I think, “Formative assessment” is more useful than “Summative assessment”.
Because in summative assessment; students can’t see their weaknesses and strengths.
Doesn’t helps students to faculty recognize where students are struggling and address
problems immediately. For example; we can not use 4 skills in Turkey while applying
Midterm, Final exams. There is lack of speaking. Even in primary and secondary
schools, most of the teachers use ‘Grammar Translation Method’. Therefore, we can’t
really measure the students’ knowledge. As in article, the validity was analyzed based
on items. So, every item was analyzed one by one to see the extent of validity.
Article Links: “https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814012671” ARTICLE 1
“http://ejournal.kopertais4.or.id/mataraman/index.php/efi/article/view/3191 ” ARTICLE 2