2022.module 4 - Alternatives in Assessment

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Pham Ha/Language Testing and Assessment 1

Module 4:
Alternatives in Assessment
haptt1983@vnu.edu.vn
2
Pham Ha/Language Testing and Assessment
Objectives
After this session, students will be able to…
• Evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of

different alternatives in language assessment, and
justify their appraisal and criticism by relevant
theoretical and empirical evidences;
• Identify main influential factors as to their choice of
an appropriate assessment practice for a particular
purpose, to a particular target population and in a
particular context.
• Identify components of an assessment task and
assessment task specification 3
Pham Ha//Language Testing and Assessment
• Characteristics of Alternative Assessment
• Alternatives in Assessment
• Assessment tasks & task specification
4
History of Educational Assessment
(Mabry, 1999)
Psychometric Contextual Personalised
From World
War 1 to 1930s
Around
Everyone is
1990s different in
Based on More understanding,
psychometric curriculum interests, needs.
tests for appropriate, “student-
measurement
Save time &
authentic, centered’,
money, classroom- ‘alternative
objective based, assessment’,
e.g.: formative ‘new assessment
standardized (Griffin & Nix, 1991; culture
Wiggin, 1989)
test
Discrete-point
tests Integrative Communicative
(50s, 60s) tests (70s, 80s) tests
E.g.: MCQs, e.g.: cloze e.g. task-based
T/F
6
Alternative Assessment
(Aschbacher, 1991; Aschbacher & Winters, 1992; Huerta-Mucias, 1995)
• Require students to perform, create,

produce or do something
• Use real-world contexts/simulations
• Non-intrusive in that they extend the day-
to-day classroom activities
• Allow students to be assessed on what
they normally do in class everyday
• Use tasks that represent meaningful
instructional activities
7
(Aschbacher, 1991; Aschbacher & Winters, 1992; Huerta-Mucias, 1995)
• Focus on both product and process

• Tap into higher-level thinking and problem
solving abilities
• Provide information about the strengths and
weaknesses of students
• Are multi-culturally sensitive
• Use human judgment
• Encourage public disclosure of standards/criteria
• Call upon teachers to perform new instructional and
assessment roles
8
• Composition tests • Simulated oral proficiency
• Cloze tests interviews
• C-tests • Role-play tests
• Cloze elides • Group tests
• (reduced-forms) • Task-based tests
Dictations • Portfolios
• Oral proficiency • Conferences
interviews • Diaries/journals
• Self-assessment
9
Example of C-test
10
Example of Cloze Elide Test
11
12
• Selected-response assessments
• Constructed-response
• Personal responses
13
Selected-response assessments
• Present students with language material
and require them to choose the correct
answer from among a limited set of options.
• Do not require students to create language.
• Are quick to administer
• Are easy, fast to score
• Are objective
 Are difficult to construct
 No productive language from students
14
Selected-response
• True-false
• Matching
• MCQs
15
Constructed-response assessments
• Require students to produce language

by writing, speaking, or doing
something else.
• Are appropriate to measure the
productive skills.
16
Constructed-response
• Fill-in
• Short answer
• Performance assessment
17
Personal-response assessments
• Require students to actually produce

language, but also allows each
student’s responses to be quite
different.
• Allow students to communicate what
they want to communicate
18
Personal-response
• Conferences
• Portfolios
• Self and peer assessment
19
Group Discussion
Each group will be in charge of an alternative in
assessment (MCQs, Portfolios, etc.), discuss in
your group and make a brief presentation to
answer the following questions:
- What is it?
- Can you find some example(s) for different
skills/ aspect(s) of language?
- What are the pros and cons?
- What aspect(s) of language or skills does it
measure the most effectively? 20
Assigned Work
• Group 1: MCQs
• Group 2: T/F (T/F/NG)
• Group 3: Matching
• Group 4: Fill-in
• Group 5: Short-answer
• Group 6: Performance tasks
• Group 7: Portfolios
Use power point, mindmap to present your
ideas.
21
BREAK TIME
Pham Ha/ELT3/Language Testing 22

and Assessment
True/False/Not Given
• An examinee has to decide if a statement is true or
false (compared to the passage/recording content).
• For example:
Decide if the statement is true (T) or false (F).
England won the world cup in 1996. T/F
23
True/False/Not Given
 easy to mark
 high probability of guessing (students can choose

all T or all F, for example)
 Tricky items
• Objective test
• Test listening and reading comprehension
24
Matching
• An examinee has to link items from the first column to
items in the second.
• Items may be individual words, words and definitions,
parts of sentences, pictures and words, etc.
• For example: Match the word on the left to the word
with opposite meaning.
fat old
young tall
dangerous thin
short safe
25
Matching
 easy to mark
 Compact in terms of space
 can guess the last item  design extra,

unnecessary items
 Measure passive vocabulary knowledge
• Objective test
• Test vocabulary and grammar, especially sentence

26
structures. Pham Ha/Language Testing and Assessment
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
Require students to examine a sample of language material
and select the answer that best competes a sentence or
best fills in a blank in the sentence from among a set of
three, four, or five options.
27
Cook is _________ today for being one

Stem
of Britain’s most famous explorers.
a) recommended
b) reminded Distractors
c) recognized
d) remembered Key
28
 easy to mark
 reduce guess work thanks to multiple distracters
 Useful in measuring a variety of learning points
 time-consuming, difficult to design
 25% of guessing (for four-optioned item)
 Real-life language is not multiple choice.
• Objective test
• Can be used to test grammar, vocabulary, listening,

reading, etc. Pham Ha/Language Testing and Assessment
29
Gap-filling
• Gives a language context with part of the context

removed and replaced with a blank.
• A hint may be provided (root verb, initial letter of the

word, etc.)
• For example: Complete the sentence.
Check the exchange ______ to see how much your

money is worth.
30
Gap-filling
 easy to mark and create
 Chances for students to produce language
 Possible to assess interactions between receptive and

productive skills
 multiple possible answers/ subjective
 Focus on single words or short phrases
• Objective/Subjective test
• Test grammar, vocabulary, listening for specific information

31
Open-ended Questions/ Short answers
• An examinee has to answer a simple question after

reading or listening or as part of an oral interview.
• For example:
Answer the questions
Why did John steal the money?
32
Open-ended Questions
 may be more accurate as it reduces guessing
 Easy to conduct and quick to administer
 Multiple answers
 Focus on assessing a few phrases or sentences
• Subjective
• Test anything, but more useful for testing four

language skills.
33
Performance assessments
• Require students to accomplish approximation of real-

life, authentic tasks, using productive skills as well as
receptive skills.
• E.g.: essay writing, interviews, problem-solving tasks,
communicative pair-work tasks, role playing, group
discussions.
34
Performance assessment
 Elicit authentic communication
 Students’ response to real-life tasks
 More valid measurement and prediction of students’

abilities
 Provide positive washback
35
Performance assessment
 Difficult to produce
 Time-consuming to administer (training raters, etc.)
 Logistics
 May influence validity and reliability (rater

inconsistences, inadequate content coverage,
scoring criteria, etc.)
36
Conferences
• Involve students visiting the teacher’s

office to discuss a particular piece of
work or learning process.
• The focus could be on students’ views
and worries about the learning
processes they are experiencing while
producing and revising their work.
37
Conferences
 Foster student reflection on their own learning

processes
 Help students develop better self-images
 Elicit language performances on particular tasks,

skills
 Inform, observe, mold & gather information about

students
38
Conferences
 Difficult and subjective to grade
 Time-consuming
 Logistics
39
Portfolios
• Are purposeful collections of any aspects

of student’s work that tell the story of
their achievements, skills, efforts, abilities,
and contributions to a particular class.
40
Portfolios
 Strengthen students’ learning
 Enhance the teacher’s role
 Improve testing process
41
Portfolios
 Issues of design decisions
 Logistics
 interpretation
 Validity
 Reality
42
Self and peer assessments
• Require students to rate their own language

or their peers’ language, whether through
performance self-assessments,
comprehension self-assessments, or
observation self-assessments.
43
 Quick to administer
 Involve students directly in the assessing process
 Foster learner’s autonomy
 Increase students’ motivation
44
 The accuracy of self-estimation
 Self-assessed scores may often be affected by

subjective errors due to past academic records,
career aspirations, peer or parental expectations.
45
Test Items Pron Gr Vocab Listen Speak Read Writ
MCQ
T/F/NG
Matching
Open-ended Q
Cloze/Gap fill
Performance
Conferences
Portfolios
Self-assessment
46
Fitting assessment types to curriculum
• Multiple sources of information

• Multiple use of assessment methods
• Interpretations of assessment results
• Positive and Negative of washback
• Giving feedback
47
48
Assessment task components
• Instructions: guidance telling learners
what they need to do to complete the task
• Input: the material that learners need to
look at/read/listen to in order to respond
• Expected response: what the learner is
expected to do in response to the input to
demonstrate his or her language ability.
49
Practice
• Activity 3, page 74-75
50
Task specification
• Specifications are descriptions of how each

task is to be written, and go beyond merely
identifying the task format to be used,
which is done in the test structure
specifications (Carr, 2011).
51
Assessment Task Specification (Carr, 2011)
Specifications Comments
component
Purpose, and construct Taken from the overall test specifications, which were
definition(s) for the based on the context and purpose specifications
task
Description of the task Descriptions of questions, prompts, or reading or listening
passages (depending on the task format being used), and
time allowed to complete the section.
Scoring method Including:
• For questions: right/wrong, or partial credit?
• For limited production tasks: model answer descriptions,
and essential response components
• For extended production tasks: considerations the
scoring rubric must address, and type of scoring rubric
Sample task Example of each type of prompt, question, and reading or

listening passage
52
Example of task specifications
• A sample of Speaking task specifications

• A sample of Reading task specifications
Pham Ha/Language Testing and Assessment 53

Thank you very much
for your attention
54

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Review Module 3

Pham Ha/Language Testing and Assessment 1

• Evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of

• Characteristics of Alternative Assessment

• Assessment tasks & task specification

Psychometric Contextual Personalised

• Require students to perform, create,

• Focus on both product and process

• Characteristics of Alternative Assessment

• Assessment tasks & task specification

• Require students to produce language

• Require students to actually produce

Pham Ha/ELT3/Language Testing 22

England won the world cup in 1996. T/F

 high probability of guessing (students can choose

• Test listening and reading comprehension

 Compact in terms of space

 can guess the last item  design extra,

 Measure passive vocabulary knowledge

• Test vocabulary and grammar, especially sentence

Cook is _________ today for being one

 reduce guess work thanks to multiple distracters

 Useful in measuring a variety of learning points

 time-consuming, difficult to design

 25% of guessing (for four-optioned item)

 Real-life language is not multiple choice.

• Can be used to test grammar, vocabulary, listening,

• Gives a language context with part of the context

• A hint may be provided (root verb, initial letter of the

• For example: Complete the sentence.

Check the exchange ______ to see how much your

 Chances for students to produce language

 Possible to assess interactions between receptive and

 multiple possible answers/ subjective

 Focus on single words or short phrases

• Test grammar, vocabulary, listening for specific information

• An examinee has to answer a simple question after

Why did John steal the money?

 may be more accurate as it reduces guessing

 Easy to conduct and quick to administer

 Focus on assessing a few phrases or sentences

• Test anything, but more useful for testing four

• Require students to accomplish approximation of real-

 Elicit authentic communication

 Students’ response to real-life tasks

 More valid measurement and prediction of students’

 Provide positive washback

 Time-consuming to administer (training raters, etc.)

 May influence validity and reliability (rater

• Involve students visiting the teacher’s

 Foster student reflection on their own learning

 Help students develop better self-images

 Elicit language performances on particular tasks,

 Inform, observe, mold & gather information about

 Difficult and subjective to grade

• Are purposeful collections of any aspects

 Strengthen students’ learning

 Enhance the teacher’s role

 Improve testing process

 Issues of design decisions

• Require students to rate their own language

 Involve students directly in the assessing process