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 M
E X A M S & E VA L U AT I O N ost teachers are involved achievement tests should be specifically
in testing in some form, designed to answer this question.
either invigilating,
Criterion-referenced tests answer
marking, assessing or
such questions as: How much has
actually writing tests. I hope few would
Student A learnt? How much does
follow the example of a former colleague
Student B know? Proficiency tests
who used tests as a punishment and a
should be designed to answer these.
means of classroom management. If his
class became too boisterous, he would In all the other test areas, the purpose
announce a test, retire to his desk and of the test should always be considered.
set the most difficult grammar test he Aptitude tests should be designed to
could find! provide information to assist prediction

Testing
terms
Anthony Bynom
explores the basic
So why do we test? The more
conventional answer to this question is
to get information, and the type of
of future learning success. Diagnostic
tests should provide information on
areas of difficulty. Performance tests
information required will dictate the should provide information for the
concepts and terminology type of test needed. evaluation of a specific skill or task.

of assessment. Types of test Reliability and validity

There are two basic types of tests. Both reliability and validity are
Norm-referenced tests answer such fundamental in current thinking on
questions as: How does Student A testing, though these concepts often
compare with Student B? Attainment or appear to be incompatible. Some tests
that are known to be reliable are seen
as falling short in validity; while
Test Purpose criticism of a test’s validity may be
based on the question of how reliable it
Selection to select testees for some future course is. It might be true to say that the whole
or type of employment; to find out if art of testing lies in attempting to find
they have the right attributes to benefit ways of harmonising these two
from the course/job important concepts.

Placement to place testees at a correct level for Reliability is the consistency of a test’s
their abilities judgement and results. A reliable test
produces precise and repeatable
Ranking/Ordering to place testees in order, determining measurements on a clear scale and gives
who is first, second, etc consistent results across a wide range of
situations. This is achieved by carefully
Diagnosis of problem areas to find out why things are happening
piloted trials of the test on a controlled
population of testees. The outcomes of
Validation of curricula, pedagogical to find out if the curriculum is working,
these trials are carefully analysed in
practices and materials classroom practices are succeeding, the
order to establish consistency. When a
materials being used are appropriate
consistent set of figures is achieved, the
Feedback to amend procedures, if necessary test may be deemed reliable.

Experimentation to try something new or different Validity refers to the truth of the test in
relation to what it is supposed to evaluate.

8 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue Twenty July 2001 •

It concerns the relevance and usefulness ● cloze tests Communicative tests are both direct
of what is being measured. The ● dictation (unless on a specific office and integrative. They attempt to focus on
difficulty in setting valid tests lies in the skills course). the expression and understanding of the
problem of how sure you can be about functional use of language rather than
what you are actually measuring. Is it Indirect tests have the big advantage of on the more limited mastery of language
consistent with what you think you’re being very ‘testlike’. They are popular form found in discrete point tests.
measuring? When assessing validity, with some teachers and most The theoretical status of
these questions are worth considering: administrators because they can be communicative testing is still subject to
Content validity Have satisfactory easily administered and scored. They some criticism, yet as language teachers
samples of language and language skills also produce measurable results and see the positive benefits accruing from
been selected for testing? have a high degree of reliability. such testing, it is becoming more and
Construct validity Is the test based
on the best available theory of language
and language use?
Language teachers see the positive
Predictive validity Does the test
successfully predict future outcomes?
benefits of communicative testing and it is
Concurrent validity Does the test
correlate with other existing measures
becoming more and more acceptable
(usually a similar test)?
Direct testing, on the other hand, more acceptable. Communicative tests
There are other ways to look at validity, tries to introduce authentic tasks which not only help to develop communicative
but these are the main ones. model real-life use of language. Such classroom competence, but also to
tests include: bridge the gap between teaching, testing
Discrete point and ● roleplaying and real life. They are useful tools in the
integrative testing ● information gap tasks areas of curriculum development and in
● reading or listening to authentic texts the assessment of future needs, as they
Discrete point tests are based on an reflect real-life situations. For
analytical view of language: language is ● writing letters and reports, form
filling and note taking participating teachers and students this
divided up so that components of it
may be tested. They aim to achieve ● summarising. can only be beneficial. E T p
high reliability by testing a large Direct tests are task oriented rather than Anthony Bynom has a
PhD in psycholinguistics,
number of discrete items. From these test oriented; they require the ability to an MA in education and
separated parts, you can form an use language in real situations, and they an Honours degree in
opinion, which is then applied to psychology. He currently
should, therefore, have a good formative works in the ESP Unit of
language as a whole. Discrete point effect on your future teaching methods the United Arab Emirates
tests include the following: phoneme and help you with curricula writing. University, where he is a
student affairs specialist.
recognition, yes/no, true/false, spelling, However, they do call for skill and He has taught in the
word completion, grammar items, most judgement on the part of the teacher. UAE, Saudi Arabia and
multiple-choice tests. Such tests have the UK.
the disadvantage that they take Communicative language testing [email protected]
language out of context and usually Since the late 1970s and early 1980s the
bear no relationship to the concept or communicative approach to language
use of whole language. teaching has gained dominance. What THIS IS YOUR MAGAZINE.
is actually meant by ‘communicative WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Integrative tests usually require the ability’ is still a matter of academic If you have any questions, comments or
testees to demonstrate simultaneous suggestions, please write, fax or email ...

p
interest and research. Broadly speaking,
control over several aspects of communicative ability should ENGLISH TEACHING professional
language, just as they would in real
language-use situations. Examples of
encompass the following skills: ET Tech West House
10 Warple Way
integrative tests include: cloze tests, ● Grammatical competence: how London W3 0UE, England
dictation, translation, essays and other grammar rules are actually applied in Tel +44 (0) 20 8762 9600 (4 lines)
coherent writing tasks, reading, oral written and oral real-life language Fax +44 (0) 20 8749 6916
situations Email [email protected]
interviews and conversation.
Web www.etprofessional.com
● Sociolinguistic competence: knowing
the rules of language use, ‘turn
Other issues taking’ during conversation Published by First Person Publishing Limited
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Direct and indirect testing discourse, etc, using appropriate Registered in England No. 2679379 Registered office:
Should you aim for direct or indirect language for a given situation 15 Baldwyn Gardens, London W3 6HJ, England
testing? ● Strategic competence: using © First Person Publishing Limited 2001
ISSN 1362-5276
Indirect testing makes no attempt to appropriate verbal and non-verbal
measure the way language is used in communication strategies. Pages 20, 31-34, 41 and 54-55 include materials
real life, but proceeds by means of which are designed to photocopy. All other rights
Communicative testing is concerned not are reserved and no part of this publication may
analogy. Some examples include: only with these different aspects of be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted without prior permission in writing
● most, if not all, of the discrete point knowledge but also on the testees’ ability
from the publishers.
tests mentioned above to demonstrate them in actual situations.

• Issue Twenty July 2001 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • 9