دانش سرا

In the name of God

آزمون سازی در زبان انگلیسی

مرکز پیش دانشگاهی شهید زنگنه-برقی

 

Testing in the English Language

Introduction:

 

Testing is an important part of every teaching and learning experience. Any teacher , whether an experienced teacher or an inexperienced one really feels a need to improve their skills in constructing and administering tests at different levels of teaching. In this article I am going to have a brief look at " the importance of testing"," test ,measurement and evaluation", " how it helps students learn English", "how it helps teachers of English ", "the relationship between testing and teaching ", " how to construct it", and some suggestions on how to prepare some kinds of tests.

 

The importance of testing:

 

Education is the most vital and important enterprise in any society. Next to defense, it is the largest economic enterprise in most countries. Therefore, it is obvious that its processes and products should be evaluated. In fact , evaluation is a major consideration in any educational setting. Teachers have always wanted to know how much their students have learned . Students , teachers, administrators and parents all work towards achieving educational goals , and it is quite natural that they would want to ascertain the degree to which those goals have been realized. Measurement and evaluation are essential devices to help them achieve most of those objectives in order to make sound educational decisions. Decisions that will outline the framework of  more appropriate system of education.

 

Test ,Measurement , and Evaluation:

 

The terms test, measurement and evaluation are sometimes used interchangeably, but some educators make distinctions among them. The term" test" is usually considered the narrowest of the three terms. "Test" often connotes the presentation of a set of questions to be answered.

We can measure characteristics by means other than giving tests. Using observation, rating scales, or other devices that allow us to obtain information in a quantitative form is "measurement " .

 

" Evaluation is a professional judgement  or as a process that  allows one to make a judgement about the value of a measure.

 

It is also important to point out that we never measure or evaluate people . We measure or evaluate characteristics or properties of people.

 

Language Testing:

 

As mentioned before, testing is an important part of  any  language teaching and language learning experience. Well made tests, prepared by teachers or a team of skillful test makers, can help students in two ways.

First , testing will encourage the students and will motivate them to learn the subject matter. Such tests can help create positive attitudes toward your class. In this way teacher are able to establish a sense of accomplishment  in the students` minds.

Second, testing will help the students prepare themselves and learn the materials. They will benefit from the test results and the discussion over these results. In this way, testing helps them to master the language. They are helped, of course, when they study for exams . In short, properly made English tests can help create positive attitudes toward instruction by giving students a sense of accomplishment and a feeling that the teacher`s evaluation of them matches what  he has taught them. Good tests also help them learn the language by forcing them to study hard, emphasizing the course objectives, and by showing them where they need to improve.

 

Testing can help teachers of English as well. A teacher of English as a second language is generally expected to feel responsible for the results of his/her instruction. The test can help him/her answer the important question" Have I been effective in my teaching ?" In other words, he can use the results to recognize his own efforts as well as the efforts of the students. It also helps us to find out our weaknesses and try to redirect our future efforts .

 

Why Test?

 

Teachers of English as a foreign language should be about to explain and justify their activities in class.

It is quite obvious that tests can help us improve the quality of instruction in any educational setting. Both the test- givers  and the test-takers benefit from the test result. A good test also enables us to locate the precise areas of difficulty encountered by the class as a whole or by the individual student. Just  as it is necessary for the doctor first to diagnose the patient`s illness ,so it is equally necessary for the teacher to diagnose the student`s weaknesses and difficulties. If the teacher is not able to identify and analyse the errors a student makes in handling the target language, he or she will not manage to present any assistance through appropriate remedial work and additional practice.

 

 

Language Teaching and Language Testing:

 

Teaching and testing are so closely interrelated that it is impossible to work in either field without being concerned about  the other. Testing is viewed  as a constructive and practical teaching strategy giving learners useful opportunities for discussion of language choices.

 

 

Test Construction:

 

It should be mentioned that test construction is not a one-dimensional process. In addition to determining the form and function of the test, the content and number of the items should be specified in advance. More specially , to construct a test , the following steps should be taken.

First , the function and the form of the test should be decided upon.

Second, the content of the items should be specified .This step is also called planning.

Third, the items should be prepared in accordance with the specified content.

Fourth, the items should be reviewed.

Fifth, the items should be pretested in order to determine their statistical characteristics . And finally ,the test should be validated . Thus steps in developing a test can be listed as follows:

1. Determining the function and the form.

2. Planning( determining the content of the test ).

3. Preparing the items.

4. reviewing the items.

5. Pretesting the items.

6. Validating the test.

Any test which is administered for decision-making purposes must go through these steps. Otherwise

, it will not be valid.

 

Suggestions for preparing True- False items:

 

1. Avoid using statements which measure trivial points. For example, the following sentence , is not an appropriate item because the information is so trivial that the examinee would be led to memorize certain points rather than comprehend the flow of language in a natural context.

Example:

The past tense of "talk" is " talked".

2. Avoid using broad general statements. Because most broad generalizations tend to be true. Consider the following examples :

 

a) The president of a country is usually elected.

b) People have friendly relationships in many societies.

3. Avoid using negative statements.

Example:

a) Students are not required to memorize the lesson.

 

b) It is unacceptable for the students not to memorize the lesson.

But if using negative statements is inevitable, write it in capital letters or underline it.

4. Avoid using long and complex sentences. The complexity of the sentence prevents the students from getting to the point being tested.

 

5. Make true and false statements approximately of similar length difficulty and distribution. If the true statements are longer than the false ones, the students will find a clue to mark longer statements as true  even if they don`t have the knowledge of the points being tested.

 

 

Suggestions for Preparing Matching Items:

 

A common form of matching  items is to arrange items in two columns and require the examinees to match the corresponding items from the two columns.

 

Example:

Match the words in column I with their antonyms in column II . There are more  items in column I than required.

 

I                                     II

 

1. construct                              a. accept

2. refuse                                   b. clarify

3. approach                              c. destroy

4. confuse

 

In constructing matching items these suggestions may be helpful:

1. Use homogeneous materials in a single matching item. For example if the item is to measure vocabulary knowledge, it should be limited to the definitions ,antonyms or synonyms alone, and not a combination of the three. It should not include grammatical structures.

2. Clarify the way the items are to be matched from the two columns.

 

3. Include an unequal number of items in each column.

 

4. Keep the list brief and place the shorter columns to the right.

 

Suggestions for Preparing Multiple- Choice Items:

 

1. The stem should be quite clear and state the point to be tested unambiguously .

 

Example:

 

He is .............

a) one of the students passing the test.

b) one of the students failing the test.

c) the who left the testing session early.

d) the man who did not participate in the test.

 

Such an item is faulty in which the stem does not pose the problem.

 

2. The stem should include as much of the item as possible.

 

3. Negative statements should be avoided because they are likely to be ignored by the examinee.

 

4. All of the alternatives must be grammatically correct by themselves and consistent with the stem.

 

5. Every item should have one correct or clearly best answer.

 

Example:

 

When Hossein called, I ......the house.

 

a) left                                   b) had left

c) was leaving                      d) have left

 

In this example , there is more than one possible answer,(b) and (c). Such item should be avoided.

 

6. All distracters should be of similar length and level of difficulty.

 

7. Using "all of the above " or " none of the above " as an alternative is not recommended.

 

8. Correct responses should be distributed approximately equally but randomly among the alternatives.

 

9. The stem should be short with a blank.

 

Characteristics of a Good Test:

 

In addition to having good items, a test should have certain characteristics. These are: reliability, validity and practicality.

The tendency toward consistency from one set of measurement to the next is called reliability.

 

Validity refers to the extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure.

 

Generally speaking, practicality refers to the case of administration and scoring of a test.

 

Guidelines for Constructing Structure Items:

 

1. The stem of the item should represent a natural dialog in casual speech. A context like:

 

" Are you going home? "

 

" Yes, I am. I`m ........home."   sounds like a mechanical  classroom activity because such language is unlikely in a normal situation.

 

2. Each item should have only one acceptable answer.

 

3. The stem should provide sufficient context and the alternatives should be brief and to the point.

 

4. The options should be of equal size.

 

5. Each item should test only one point.

 

Guidelines for Constructing Listening Comprehension Items:

 

1. Selection of pictures should be done with great care. Pictures should be simple and easy to understand.

 

2. Sampling of spoken stimuli should be carefully done to ensure that they represent typical real-life speech activities.

 

Testing Reading Comprehension:

 

Reading comprehension tests try to determine the examinees` ability to get meaning from the printed material. In the preparation of reading selection, it is advisable to keep certain points in mind.

 

1. The passages should be realistic in terms of language use.

 

2. Reading tests should comprise passages whose content is suitable , culturally fair, and representative of the knowledge and interests of the subjects.

 

3. Each reading passage should have enough substance to allow for an appropriate number of logical comprehension items.

 

All these notes that were pointed to are suggestions that we as English teachers should take into account. There are  also suggestions for constructing pronunciation and spelling items that should be considered like those points that were represented briefly before.