Principles of language assessment testAssessment 2012

Name: Paulina Escobar Aguayo. Date: April 04th, 2012.

1. Name and define (in not more than three lines) 3 Bachman and Palmer`s qualities of test usefulness and 3 Brown`s. (2 points each) Compare 1 quality in both models (3 points)

2. Analyze the test item below. a) What aspect(s) of language knowledge/ability is it testing or claiming to be testing? (2 points) b) is it valid and reliable test item? Back up your answers. (4 each quality)

3.

Test of spoken EnglishLook at the timetable below and tell your teacher about itBritish Rail Timetable

Leeds London 07:00 09:0507:20 09:3507:38 10:0508:05 10:3509:05 11:3710:05 12:30

3. Analyze the cartoon in terms of test qualities. Identify and explain 1 weak and 1 strong test quality of this testing situation. (4 each)

Total score: 33 pointsRC/GS2012

1) According to Bachman & Palmer’s a test is useful if it has Reliability, validity and

authenticity: moreover, Brown points out that a test is useful if it has reliability, validity

and authenticity too.

However, both authors have different point of view. In the case of validity Bachman

has a narrow definition. He suggests that validity is closely related with the score of a test.

He also says that teachers have to justify why they give more scores too one section and

less to another section of a test. Unlike Brown proposes more than one type of validity. E.g.

Construct validity, face validity, predictive validity and content validity. For him validity is

more than the explanation or the interpretation of the score and also it’s not only related

with the teacher, but also with the students and with the content. A test is valid if it has

coherence between what the teacher is going to evaluate and what the teacher taught before.

2) The test is unreliable because the instruction is not very clear; in addition, it’s very

difficult to know what aspect the teacher wants to evaluate in the test. Maybe the teacher

wants to test the time; nonetheless, it’s not very precise. Is difficult to know what the test is

measure.

Also the test is not valid. Firstly, for students because if they look at the test they

could feel confused about what they have to do (face validity). In terms of content validity,

it’s not so clear because we don’t know what the teacher is going to evaluate. Maybe if the

teacher taught the time the test could be valid, but we don’t know.

3) In the cartoon “validity” is absent because according to D. Brown validity is “the

extent to which inferences made from assessment results are appropriate, meaningful, and

useful in terms of the purpose of the assessment” In this case the test is invalid because

the test is neither meaningful nor useful for all of these students. For example how a fish

can climb a tree? It is impossible, the same happen with the penguin and the seal. In

addition content validity is absent too, because what the teacher want to measure is not

clear. Want the teacher measure the ability to climb a tree or the procedure that students use

to climb a tree? Those aspects are not clear enough.

In contrast, practicality is a strong quality of this test, according to Brown this test is

not excessively expensive, it not time consuming, also it is relatively easy to administer. In

terms of practicality this test is practical because it is easy to take. The teacher does not

need to spend a lot of time or money in order to take this test.