English Language Testing and Evaluation

1. English Language Testing and Evaluation EFL413

2. Why test? • Diagnose students strengths and needs • Provide feedback on student learning • Provide a basis for instructional placement • Inform and guide instruction • Communicate learning expectations • Motivate and focus students’ attention and effort • Provide practice applying knowledge and skills • Diagnose students strengths and needs • Provide feedback on student learning • Provide a basis for instructional placement • Inform and guide instruction • Communicate learning expectations • Motivate and focus students’ attention and effort • Provide practice applying knowledge and skills

3. This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns:Observations

4. This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Journals/logs

5. This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Projects

6. This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Portfolios

7. This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Discussions

8. This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Standardized tests

9. This type of testing/evalutation spans two columns: Standardized tests

10. EFL teachers • Should EFL teachers know about linguistics? Why? Why not? • If you were to take a multiple choice test with ten questions about basic linguistic terminology, how many do you think you’d get right? • Write your prediction down.

11. Basic Linguistic Terminology • You will see ten multiple choice questions. • You will have 30 seconds to choose an answer. • Write your answers on a piece of paper. From: http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz691417ecee0.html

22. How did you feel?

24. You and tests Tests that left you feeling Tests that made you feel • Positive • Self-confident • Motivated Why? • Degraded • Anxious • De-motivated Why?

25. How did you do? Apocope Alphabetism Exonym Prothesis Dissimilation Jakob Grimm Clinical linguistics L1 or First Language Folk etymology Glossolalia

26. Three key concepts • T e _ _ _ _ _ • A s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ • T e _ _ _ _ _ _ • Testing • Assessment • Teaching

27. What is a test? What makes a test “a test”? 4 – 5 keywords? A method of … (Brown, 2004)

28. What is a test? What makes a test “a test”? 4 – 5 keywords? A method of measuring a person’s ability, knowledge or performance in a given domain (Brown, 2004) What makes a test “a test”? 4 – 5 keywords? A method of measuring a person’s ability, knowledge or performance in a given domain (Brown, 2004)

29. What is a test? • Measure – what? How? • General ability / specific knowledge • Individual ability and performance • % | AA | Pass/Fail – must have result • The person • Appropriate? • Interpretation? • Relevance? • Performance • Competence (actual use of language) • Metalanguage (e.g. grammar); Skills (e.g. infer) • Domain • General competence (e.g. proficiency) • Specific criteria (e.g. vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar)

30. What makes a good test? A well-constructed test is….

31. “A well-constructed test is an instrument that provides an accurate measure of a test taker's ability within a particular domain.” Brown, 2003

32. Assessment • Is assessment synonymous with testing?

33. Which is which? Assessment Testing • ongoing process • Generally encompasses a wide domain • subconscious impression • Incidental judgment • implicit evaluation • administrative procedure • specific times • curriculum referenced • peak performance • measured and evaluated

34. Where is the line… • …between assessment and testing? • …between assessment and teaching?

35. Which best describes the relationship? Tests Teaching Assessment Assessment Tests Teaching Tests Assessment Teaching

36. The four winds of assessment Formal Formative Tests Informal Summative

37. What characteristics do these have?

38. Testing terminology • Norm referenced • Criterion referenced

39. Norm-referenced terminology • standardized tests • Scholastic Achievement Test • rank order • standard deviatıon • percentile rank • mean (average score) • median (middle score) • large-scale testing • pre-determined responses

40. Criterion referenced terminology • feedback • learning objectives • classroom-based • curriculum • instructional value

41. Testing Philosophy (Order according to history) Instruments (Match to philosophy) • Communicative Language teaching • Humanism • Learner centered • Behaviourism Integrative testing/whole language (cloze/dictation) Performance based (portfolio, collaborative, interactive) Discrete-point testing (decontextualized – language broken in parts) Language competence (authentic tasks)

42. Testing Philosophy (Order according to history) Instruments (Match to philosophy) Behaviourism Humanism Communicative Language teaching Learner centered Discrete-point testing (decontextualized – language broken in parts) Integrative testing/whole language (cloze/dictation) Language competence (authentic tasks) Performance based (portfolio, collaborative, interactive)

43. MOODLE – key=###xxx • Reading and discussion, Brown, 2004, Chapter 1, pp. 1-11. • Facebook group – METU EFL413 • Links to download course materials • TWITTER – join @neufelds/efl413