BASIC PRINCIPLES OF

ASSESSMENT
TSL3112 LANGUAGE
ASSESSMENT
PISMP TESL SEMESTER 6
IPGKDRI

CHARACTERISTICS OF A TEST
Should be applied to assessments of all
kinds in general.
Questions to ponder:
Can it be given within appropriate administrative
constraints?
Is it dependable?
Does it accurately measure what you want it to
measure?
Is the language in the test representative of realworld language use?
Does the test provide information that is useful
for the learner?

PRACTICALITY
Refers to the logistical, down-toearth, 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, ease of scoring, and ease
of interpreting/reporting the results
(Mousavi, 2009).

PRACTICALITY
A PRACTICAL TEST
stays within budgetary limits.
can be completed by the test-taker within
appropriate time constraints.
has clear directions for administration.
appropriately utilises available human
resources.
does not exceed available material resources.
considers the time and effort involved for
both design and scoring.

OBJECTIVITY
Refers to the degree to which equally
competent scorers obtain the same
results.
Most standardised tests of aptitude and
achievement are high in objectivity.
The test items are objective type (e.g.
MCQ), and the resulting scores are not
influenced by the scorers judgement /
opinion.

OBJECTIVITY
In fact, such tests are usually constructed so
that they can be accurately scored by trained
clerks and scoring machines.
Highly objective procedure are used the
reliability of the test results is not affected by
the scoring procedures.
For classroom assessments constructed by
teachers or performance-based assessments,
objectivity plays an important role in
obtaining reliable measures of achievement.

OBJECTIVITY
Teachers may not only use objective tests,
but also other methods of assessment that
require judgemental scoring.
Therefore, to ensure high objectivity:
Select assessment procedures most appropriate
for the learning goals being assessed.
Make the assessment procedure as objective as
possible e.g. carefully phrasing the questions
and providing a standard set of rules for scoring.

WASHBACK EFFECT
The effect of testing on teaching and
learning e.g. the extent to which
assessment affects a students future
language development.
Messick (1996) reminded us that the
washback effect may refer to both
the promotion and the inhibition of
learning (beneficial versus
harmful/negative) washback.

WASHBACK EFFECT
Alderson & Wall (1993) a Washback
Hypothesis how tests influence both
teaching and learning.
A TEST THAT PROVIDES BENEFICIAL
WASHBACK
positively influences what and how teachers
teach.
positively influences what and how learners
learn.
offers learners a chance to adequately prepare.

WASHBACK EFFECT
gives learners feedback that enhances
their language development.
is more formative in nature than
summative.
provides conditions for peak
performance by the learner.

WASHBACK EFFECT
In large-scale assessment, washback refers to the
effects that tests have on instruction in terms of
how students prepare for the test e.g., cram
courses and teaching to the test.
The current worldwide use of standardised tests for
gate-keeping purposes can lead students to focus
on gaining an acceptable score rather than on
language development.
Positively, many enrollees in test-preparation
courses report increased competence in certain
language-related tasks (Chapelle, Enright, &
Jamieson, 2008).

WASHBACK EFFECT
In classroom-based assessment,
washback can have a number of
positive manifestations, ranging from
the benefit of preparing and reviewing
for a test to the learning that accrues
from feedback on ones performance.
Teachers can provide information to
students on useful diagnoses of
strengths and weaknesses.

WASHBACK EFFECT
Washback also includes the effects of an
assessment on teaching and learning prior to the
assessment itself, i.e., on preparation for the
assessment.
The challenge to teachers is to create classroom
tests that serve as learning devices through
which washback is achieved.
Washback enhances a number of basic principles
of language acquisition: intrinsic motivation,
autonomy, self-confidence, language ego,
interlanguage, and strategic investment.

WASHBACK EFFECT
Ways to enhance washback:
To comment generously and specifically on
test performance.
Through a specification of the numerical
scores on the various subsections of the test.
Formative versus summative tests:
Formative tests provide washback in the form of
information to the learner on progress towards
goals.
Summative tests provide washback for learners to
initiate further pursuits, more learning, more
goals, and more challenges to face.

WASHBACK EFFECT
To imply that students have ready
access to you to discuss the feedback
and evaluation you have given.

AUTHENTICITY
The degree of correspondence of the
characteristics of a given language
test task to the features of a target
language task (Bachman & Palmer,
1996).
Lewkowicz (2000) discussed the
difficulties of operationalising
authenticity in language assessment:
Who can certify whether a task or
language sample is real-world or not?

AUTHENTICITY
Such judgements are subjective, and
yet authenticity is a concept that
language-testing experts have paid a
great deal of attention to (Bachman
& palmer, 1996; Fulcher & Davidson,
2007).
Chun (2006) asserts that many test
types fail to simulate real-world
tasks.

AUTHENTICITY
AN AUTHENTIC TEST
contains language that is as natural as
possible.
has items that are contextualised rather
than isolated.
includes meaningful, relevant, interesting
topics.
provides some thematic organisation to
items, such as through a story line or
episode.
offers tasks that replicate real-world tasks.

AUTHENTICITY
The authenticity of test tasks in recent
years has increased noticeably.
Many large-scale tests nowadays offer
simulation of real-world tasks in speaking
and writing components, of which the
performance of these productive skills
were not included previously.
Reading passages are selected from realworld sources that test-takers are likely
to have encountered or will encounter.

AUTHENTICITY
Listening comprehension sections
feature natural language with
hesitations, white noise, and
interruptions.
More tests offer items that are
episodic in that they are sequenced
to form meaningful units,
paragraphs, or stories.