Test Tasks

Constructing language tests means selecting a task or tasks that Will

elicit the kind(s) of language skills you are interested in assessing. Be
sure to consider the response characteristics or demands of the tasks.
In other words, what kinds of responses are possible or required by the
test task presented to the students? This is important because certain
kinds of tests elicit or call for certain kinds of skills that may be
irrelevant to the actual language skills you are interested in.

You should avoid items in which the task demands exceed or interfere
with the language skills of interest. Identifying task demands calls for
analysis and intuition.

The response characteristics of test tasks can be described as:

1) Closed-ended
2) Limited
3) Open-ended

Closed-ended test tasks call for the most limited and most predictable
responses, and open-ended tasks call for the least limited and least
predictable responses; limited response tasks fall in between these
two.

Closed-ended

Include a prompt, stem, or elicitation followed by alternative responses

or answers. Students select their answers from the alternatives that are
given (multiple choice questions). The task is basically one of
recognition of the correct and appropriate answer. Are suitable for
assessing comprehension skills. They do not involve language
production and, therefore, cannot be used to assess speaking and
writing skills directly. Different kinds of prompts and response
alternatives can be used. It can even nonlinguistic in nature. The
response alternatives might take the form of a judgment of correct or
incorrect, appropriate or inappropriate, or true or false. Or they might
take the form of an actual linguistic response, such as words, phrases,
or sentences. Examples of closed-ended test tasks are:

I. Cloze tasks in which a word or words have been deleted

from a sentence or paragraph of written text and students
must fill in the missing words by choosing from a number of
alternatives provided by the examiner.
II. Picture or object elicitation tasks with alternatives, for
example, the student is shown an object or picture of an
object and has to identify the name of the object from
alternatives given by the examiner.
III. Judgment tasks in which the student responds to an item
with an answer of correct of incorrect, true of false, same or
different, or appropriate or inappropriate.
IV. Picture and object elicitation tasks can be seen as special
cases of judgment tasks in that a series of true or false,
correct or incorrect, appropriate or inappropriate judgments
is called for when considering each alternative.

When scoring closed-ended tasks, one simply needs to see whether

the student has selected the correct alternative. Are often referred to
as an objective test tasks since deciding whether the response is right
or wrong does not depend on the examiner’s subjective judgment or
opinion.

Limited-Response Tasks

The range of responses available to the student is not fixed by the

examiner as it is in the case of closed-ended tasks. All of the task
types described under closed-ended response tasks can be used as
limited-response tasks if alternative answers are not provided by the
examiner. There are also other kinds of limited-response tasks, for
example:

1) Elicitation tasks in which a carefully selected stimulus or

prompt is used to elicit specific responses from the student,
but no response alternatives are actually given; the student
must provide the response. It can contain more complex
prompts. This type of format is considered a limited-
response task because both the nonlinguistic content and
the linguistic form of the response expected of the student
are restrained in important ways by the prompt.
2) Cloze tests with no alternative responses provided;
students must fill in the blanks with their own responses.
The response alternatives are limited by the grammatical
and semantic context of the missing word.
3) Dictation and imitation tests in which the student to
transform an item as directed by the examiner. At the same
time, there is some variation in possible response in the
way the student spells or pronounces the target words.
 4) Transformation tasks in which the student is asked to
transform an item and directed by the examiner.
5) Rearrangement and matching tasks in which the student is
given a set of items and has to arrange them in a correct or
meaningful order or so that they go together in same way.

In contrast to closed-ended response formats, more than recognition is

called for by limited response formats. Students must actually produce
a correct or appropriate response, and, therefore, they must be able to
recall the correct grammar rule, word, expression, pronunciation, and
so on.

Open-ended Response Tasks

In open-ended tasks, the response alternatives are not limited by the

examiner or test item, and students are free to give a wide variety of
possible responses, the examiner has relatively little knowledge
beforehand of what students will say or write and how they will express
it linguistically. Open-ended tasks are suitable for assessing speaking,
listening, and other language skills that call for the production or
generation of language. Examples of this tasks are:

i. Oral interviews in which the content is not prespecified.

ii. Role-Plays and interviews which the content is specified.
iii. Written compositions which the student is free to choose
the content.
iv. Information-gap which the students are asked to provide
information that is not known to the examiner.
Choosing and devising test tasks
Choosing tests tasks

Choosing the type or types of tasks to include in a language tests

depends on combination of factors:

1) Instructional objectives
2) The students’ level of proficiency
3) Instructional activities
4) Available testing resources

Instructional objectives

The most important factor to consider when choosing which type of test
task to use is your objectives. Choose tasks that focus on the same
kinds of language skills described in the objectives as well as the range
and standards of performance expected of the students. Closed-ended
tasks permit assessment of comprehension skills in both reading and
listening, but they do not lend themselves to directly assessing
production skills. Closed-ended tasks permit the examiner to assess
specific language skills – this follows form the fact that the responses
permitted by closed-ended task are controlled totally by the examiner.
In comparison, limited-response and open-ended response tasks do
not control the students’ specific responses – students can often find
ways of responding to test items that are different from what was in
ended by the examiner.
The range of language skills elicited by a closed-ended task is strictly
under the control of the test makers; they can include as broad or as
narrow a range of language skills as desired.

Level of proficiency

Closed-ended and limited-response tasks can be particularly suitable

for assessing the language skills of beginning level second language
learners. This does not mean that closed-ended and limited-response
formats can not be used for intermediate or advanced level students.
Open-ended tasks, in comparison, can be particularly suitable for
assessing more advanced students. If different task types are used in a
single test, it is generally desirable to start off with closed-ended tasks
in order to put students at ease and to include limited-or open-ended
response items later once the students have warmed up.

Instructional activities

Test tasks should be chosen by taking into account the kinds of

instructional activities the learners have been exposed to. This ensures
that students are familiar with and, therefore, understand the response
demands of the task. Therefore, test tasks should always be chosen
that are well understood by students, either by virtue of their classroom
experiences with similar tasks during introduction or by virtue of clear
instructions in the test.

Available testing resources

Test tasks should be practical given the resources available. An

important resource to consider in time, both for administering the test
and for scoring it. In general, open-ended test tasks take much longer
to score than closed-ended or limited-response tasks.

Individual testing that requires private, quite space is impractical if the

examiner does not have a separate area for conducting the interviews.