Level: B1 (Intermediate)

Syllabus: New English File

To define the topics that will be tested in the exam,
we used stratified sampling. We consider the
communicative use of language as the most
important thing for students. The units chosen from
the syllabus involve familiar vocabulary of everyday
use that can help students to give personal opinions.
This will help them to reinforce the knowledge they
have about the language.
Stratified sampling test: This content was
chosen because it is clearly related to each
other. The main topics shown in each unit
are really important in order to develop
efficient communicative skills
Objectives
1. Students will be able to distinguish the use of future forms talking
about personal future plans in a written form, for example a
letter.
2. Students will be able to recognize each member of a family and
select the correct person depending on their oral description.
3. Students will be able to categorize members of the family in texts
and use relative pronouns to answer when a question is given
about it.
4. Students will be able to understand and use certain modal verbs
to make speculations about people in everyday conversations;
they will also be able to identify them in texts.
5. Students will be able to describe people in an oral form, using
adjectives for physical appearance and also to talk about mood
of people.
Leve: B2
Syllabus: Straightforward Upper Intermediate
Students Book
Objectives:
Achievement Test
- Alternative Approach

Ss will be able to produce fluently descriptions
and narrations about past events in a written
way using appropriate vocabulary.
Ss will be able to understand, identify, and
express opinions about social, and academic
topics.
Ss will be able to understand the main idea of
some articles, letters, etc.
Objectives:
Writing: Student will be able to describe their last
vacations in an informal way, using past tenses,
time linkers and words related to travel vocabulary.
Grammar: Student will comprehend the meaning of
certain phrasal verbs, recognize when and how to
use past tenses and will make a correct use of the
quantifiers both and neither.
Reading and listening: Student will understand a
text/audio related to travel, which includes past
tenses, and time likers; therefore, the student will
be able to answer questions related to that
text/audio.
Speaking: Student will be able to talk about a past
experience, using past tenses, time linkers, phrasal
verbs and travel vocabulary.
Stating the
problem
What kind of test is it to be?
What is the purpose?
What abilities are to be tested?
How important is backwash?
Writing
specifications
for the test
Content
Structure, timing, medium/channel and techniques
Scoring procedures
Writing and
moderating
items
Writing
Moderating
Frequently there is both a real and perceived mismatch between the
content examined in class and the material assessed on at end of
chapter/unit test. This lack of coherence leads to a test that fails to
provide evidence from which teachers can make valid judgments
about students progress (Brookhart, 1999).

One strategy teachers can use to mitigate this problem is to
develop a Table of Specifications (TOS), sometimes also called
blueprints.

When constructing a test, teachers need to be concerned that the
test measures an adequate sampling of the class content at the
cognitive level that the material was taught.
The TOS can help teachers map the amount of class time spent on
each objective with the cognitive level at which each objective was
taught thereby helping teachers to identify the types of items they
need to include on their tests.

Tabla de especificaciones
1. Utilidad de la tabla de especificaciones
La tabla de especificaciones relaciona los objetivos con el contenido
y establece la importancia relativa que se proporcionar a cada una
de las diversas reas. El propsito de la tabla es indicar si el examen
es adecuado para medir de manera balanceada los resultados de
aprendizaje y el contenido del curso; es decir, sirve como plano para
el docente, pues especifica la naturaleza de cada reactivo.
Si el examen se ha preparado cuidadosamente, su eficacia
depender de la habilidad del docente para elaborar reactivos que
pongan de manifiesto la conducta especfica descrita en los
objetivos de aprendizaje.

2. 2. Metodologa
La preparacin de una tabla de especificaciones incluye:
Los temas del curso.
El peso de estos temas en el examen.
Los objetivos especficos del tema.
La cantidad de reactivos.
El peso de los reactivos.
El tipo de reactivo.
El nivel de pensamiento.
El nmero del reactivo en el examen.
TABLE OF SPECIFICATIONS


SKILL

TOPIC
TEST TASK SPECIFICATIONS COGNITIVE
DOMAIN
(Blooms category)

General
description of the task

% from
the test
TYPE # of
items
# of
marks
TIMING 1 2 3 4 5 6





Test specifications can take many formats, following the plan of
Mislevy, Almond and Lukas (2003):

Item/task specifications: describe the prompts that are designed to
elicit evidence upon which inferences are made about the targeted
abilities of the learners.

Evidence specification: What kind of response is expected and
how the response is to be scored.

Test assembly specification: how many items are required for each
category. The test assembly specification therefore plays a critical
role in showing that the number and range of items in any form of
the test adequately represent the key features of the criterion
situation in the real world.

Presentation specifications.

Delivery specification: test security and timing.

Any realization of the specifications is a test
form.

A test form means that it is generated from a test
specification; one reason for having test specifications is
to try to ensure that each form looks roughly the same
because it is made up of the same item types, with the
same number of items, representing the same set of
constructs in each section. It is also designed to try to
make sure that each form is of the same difficulty.

A critical feature of test forms therefore, is that they are
parallel; there is no change between them.
However, when we talk about a version of a test, we
imply that it has changed. (Fulcher, 2010;129)

One of the most important contributions of criterion-referenced
measurement to testing practice was the central focus it placed on
describing the intended outcomes of instructions that is, the
objectives. Requiring teachers/test developers to describe
clearly the knowledge and skills to be tested provides the
framework needed to write valid test items, to evaluate item-
objective congruence, and to enhance the quality of test score
interpretations. (Hambleton, 1994:23)
Item-objective congruence

It refers to the relationship between the item or the task and the
learning objective that it is designed to test.


The point made is that specifications make us think, as teachers, very
carefully about what it is we think the object of a learning activity is.

The specification forces the language test designer to be explicit
about the reason for the use of item and what it is the item intended to
test.
The specification can be a focal point for teacher
collaboration in defining what it is that is being taught and
learned. Teachers can use the specifications to create
multiple tasks in teams that can be used in delivering a
spiral curriculum that offers multiple opportunities for
learning
Target Language Use (TLU) by Bachman and Palmer (1996)
This approach involves describing the item/task according to
features that exist in the target language use situation across
a number of categories:
- Test environment (place, equipment, personnel, etc)
- Test rubric (organization, time instructions)
- Input language
- Expected response
- Relationship between input and response