Obraz (129)

I sgnostic Tests are primarily des gned to assess students’ knowledge & skills in particular =reas before a course of study is Pegun. Reference back to class-work. Motivation. Remedial work.

Placement Testshsort new students into teaching groups so that they are approx. the same

fó/el as others when they start. Present standing. General ability rather than specific points of learning. Variety of tests necessary. Reference forward to futurę learning. Results of Placement Tests are needed quickly. Administrative load.

v^mfi<iency.Tests:.Kteasure students' achievements in relation to a specific task which they

are later required to perform (e.g. follow a university course in the English medium; do a particular job). Reference forward to particular application of language acquired: futurę performance rather than past achievement. They rarely take into account the syllabus that students have followed. Definition of operational needs. Practical situations. Authentic strategies for coping. Common standard e.g. driving test regardless of previous learning. Application of common standard whether the syllabus is known or unknown.

Aptitude Tests: i ure students probable performance. Reference forward but can be

distihgułshed-frorrr proficiency tests. Aptitude tests assess proficiency in language for language use (e.g. will S experience difficulty in identifying sounds or the grammatical structure of a new language?) while Proficiency tests measure adequacy of control in L2 for studying other things through the medium of that language.

6. Give characteristics ofaood and bad assessment

A. Anxiety

Good assessment is, as far as possibie, non-threatening to teachers and students.

External examinations, and sometimes internal school examinations, are often felt by the teachers themselves to be a threat to their reputation. If their students do not do as well as those of another school or another class, they fear that they will be blamed.

B Validity

A test cannot be a good one unless it is valid. The essence of validity is that the test measures what it claims to measure.

C Reliability

If two teachers mark the same test, or if/one teacher marks it late at night and again early the next morning, or if the same teacher marks it again after a three-month interval, how ciosely do the results taiły? If it is a Yes/No reading comprehension test often items, with no doubtful items, agreement should be 100% except for accidents and cases where a student has indicated his choice ambiguously.

D Backwash

Though less impressively technical-sounding than validity and reliability, backwash is just as important. As a comparison here we might imagine a speedboat travelling on a canal. This too might be a perfectly valid means of getting from A to B, considered in isolation. Its mechanism might be thoroughly reliable. But its speed makes it a danger to other boat traffic. its noise and fumes make it a nuisance to human beings and a threat to bird life. The wash it creates will quickly cause the canal banks to crumble. Similarly, we may have to reject a test, however valid and reliable it might be, because it leaves in its wake undesirable 'side-effects' on teaching.