Identify different types of language tests/assessments in a language program; Examine some characteristics and common test/assessments types; Discuss principles of designing good tests/assessments

1. Lecturer: Mr. VATH Vary
Phone: 017 471 11 7
Email: varyvath@gmail.com
Chapter 7:
Monitoring and
Assessment

2. The aim of this part of the curriculum design
process is to decide what to test and how to test
it.

3. Quiz:
Supply key
Term
 (1) _________________ is a method of
measuring a person’s ability or knowledge
in a given domain, with an emphasis on
the concept of method and measuring. It
is one of the many assessment methods
available to teachers
 (2) _________________ is an ongoing
process that encompasses a much wider
domain. For example, a student responds
to a question, offers a comment, or tries
out a new word or structure.
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A. Test B. Assessment

4. Quiz:
MCQ
 Choose the key term answering the
following questions.
Does the assessment accurately measure
what we really want to measure?
Is the all work being consistently
marked to the same standards?
Is the procedure relatively easy to
administer?
Are students asked to perform real-
world tasks?
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A. reliability B. Validity C. Practicality D.
Authenticity

5. Monitoring and
Assessment
Environmen
t
analysis needs analysis
principles
provide a teacher and learners with information about
the learners’ present knowledge and progress;
a means of encouraging involvement and participation.
Its purpose is to make
sure that the learners
will get the most benefit
from the course.
involves carefully observing the
learners and the course, and
suggesting changes to the
course and the way it is run
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6. ENVIRONMENT
Learners  The learners should feel good about their progress.
Teachers
 The teacher should:
- be able to assess and correct the outcomes to the
activities.
- have time to assess and correct the outcomes to the
activities.
Situation
 The assessment
- should be economical.
- may need to match with the external testing set by
the education department, a government ministry
or testing agency.
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Table 7.1 Monitoring and assessment guidelines

7. NEEDS
Lacks
 The course should show that the learners are
increasing their knowledge of the language.
Wants
 The course should show the learners that they
are learning to do what they want to do.
Necessities  The course should show that the learners are
getting better at tasks they will need to do after
the course.
PRINCIPLES
As much as possible, the learners should be interested and excited
about learning the language and they should come to value this
learning.
Learners should receive helpful feedback which will allow them to
improve the quality of their language use.
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Table 7.1 Monitoring and assessment guidelines

8. Placemen
t Test
Diagnosti
c Test
Short-
term
achievem
ent test
Achievem
ent Test
Proficien
cy Test
Pre- course
  
During
course
 
At the end
of-course
 
Types of Tests and Time Frames
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9. Types of
Monitoring
and
Assessment
Placement tests/assessment
 Used to place a student into an appropriate
level or a language curriculum.
Tests include language items and four
skills.
The results have to be available quickly.
Purpose: to ensure that the course is
neither too easy or too difficult for the
learner.
Common tests include:
Vocabulary tests, Cloze tests, & Structured
interviews;
 Proficiency tests and diagnostic tests can act in
the role of placement tests.
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10.  https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resourc
es/paul-nations-
resources/vocabulary-tests
 https://my.vocabularysize.com/
 https://www.lextutor.ca/tests/vst/
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 are reading passages where
every fifth word has been
replaced by a space, starting
with the second sentence in the
text.
 To work well, cloze tests need to
have around forty spaces.
 The learners sit the test by
writing one word in each space.
 They do not choose from a given
list of words but use the context
to work out what word is
missing.
Cloze tests

11. Types of
Monitoring
and
Assessment
Observation of learning
 Monitoring learners’ progress in a course
can occur at the level of the learning
activity.
Focus on TASKS/ACTIVITIES not
learners
Use of observations, surveys,
checklists.
Purpose: decide whether the activity
is valid (necessary, desired, etc.) to
encourage learning.
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12. Types of
Monitoring
and
Assessment
Short-term achievement tests/
assessment
Learners are monitored to see their
progress at regular intervals during the
course.
These include: weekly tests (quizzes), self-
assessment records, etc.
 The Good Characteristics should
 provide a clear record of progress that is easily
interpreted;
 be in a form to motivate learners to keep
working towards the course goals;
 not occupy too much class time;
 be a regular expected part of class activity.
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13. Types of
Monitoring
and
Assessment
Diagnostic tests/assessment
 Used to identify learners’ strengths and
weaknesses;
 Can be limited to one or overall skills
 Can be paper, oral or computer -based
 Purposes: to find the gaps and weaknesses and
provide a remedy for them and is a part of needs
analysis–determining what goes into a course
 Diagnostic information:
 Interpreting results of placement, achievement and
proficiency tests
 Analyzing language use: four skills,
conversational activity, interview and self-
assessment with checklists or scales.
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14. Types of
Monitoring
and
Assessment
Achievement tests/assessment
 are based on what the learners have studied and
show their progress through the course.
 Measures achievement of learners usually at the end of
a course and perhaps one or two test parts during the
course and effectiveness of the course.
 Includes mid-term exams, final exams
 Provides valuable washback on teaching and
learning.
 Characteristics of good achievement tests:
are based on material taught in the course;
Learners usually know what material will be
covered;
 Are criterion-referenced: a criterion set indicating
whether learners have achieved enough to be given a pass for
the course (pass grade 80 / 90%)
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15. Types of
Monitoring and
Assessment
Proficiency tests/assessment
Used to test learner’s overall
ability
 The content of a proficiency test, therefore, is
not based on the content or objectives of any
language
 may be done before or at the end of a course
 used to enter or exit the course or program
(TOEFL or IELTS)
 NOTE: are not usually made by teachers for a
particular course, but are made by some outside
organization or person who is interested in
comparing learners who have studied in
different courses
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16. Principles of
Language
Assessment
Reliability
Authenticity
Practicalit
y
Validity
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17. Reliability A reliable test is consistent and
dependable.
If you give the same test to the same student
or matched students on two different
occasions, the test should yield similar results.
A test is more reliable if:
 (1) it is always given under the same conditions,
 (2) it is consistently marked,
 (3) it has a large number of points of assessment,
that is, many questions or as in a dictation many
items that are marked,
 (4) and its questions and instructions are clear and
unambiguous.
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18. Validity Validity
refers to the extent to which inferences made
from assessment results are appropriate,
meaningful, and useful in terms of the purpose
of the assessment.
A valid test measures what it is supposed
to measure.
 Two types of validity:
Face validity: Does reading test look like a reading
test?/ Does vocabulary test look like a vocabulary
test?
Content validity: analyze the test and compare it to
what it is supposed to test
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19. Practicality Practicality
 refers to the logistical, down-to-earth,
administrative issues involved in making,
giving, and scoring an assessment
instrument.
 These include “costs, the amount of time it takes
to construct and to administer, the number of
people needed to administer and mark the test,
ease of scoring, and ease of
interpreting/reporting the results”
 Tests can be made more practical by:
 having reusable test papers, being carefully
formatted for easy marking, being not too long,
and using objectively scored items such as
true/false or multiple choice.
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20. Authenticity Authenticity
refers to the degree of correspondence of
the characteristics of a given language
test task to the features of a target
language task.
 AN AUTHENTIC TEST...
 contains language that is as natural as
possible
 has items that are contextualized rather than
isolated
 includes meaningful, relevant, interesting
topics
 provides some thematic organization to items,
such as through a story line or episode
 offers tasks that replicate real-world tasks
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21. Summary
of the Steps
Decide what kinds of
assessment are needed
and when they are
needed.
Write the tests.
Check the reliability,
validity and practicality
and AUTHENTICITY of
the tests.
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22. Conclusion Assessment
is a major source of information
for the evaluation of a course and
thus its gradual improvement.
also contributes significantly to
the teacher’s and learners’ sense
of achievement in a course and
thus is important for motivation.
Curriculum design should
include the planning of a well-
thought-out program of
assessment of various kinds.
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23. Further reading materials
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24. MR. VATH
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