Testing: Paper 1, Task 1 and 2; Paper 2, Task 1

cloze

(also ... deletion test) is an exercise, test, or assessment consisting of a portion of text with certain words removed (... text), where the participant is asked to replace the missing words

objective subjective assessment

-- (or, more usually, testing) is characterised by tasks in which there is only one right answer. It may be a multiple-choice test, a True/False test or any other kind of test where the result can readily be seen and is not subject to the marker's judgement

placement tests

-- a test at the beginning of test to put learners in groups

achievement tests

-- an end-of-course test to see how much of syllabus has been acquired -- a test in the middle of course to see where to go to next --part of an IELTS test

diagnostic tests

-- at test to discover learner's strengths and weaknesses -- a test given to learners to plan a syllabus for them

gap-fill

-- is particularly useful for skimming purposes: students, for instance, might be required to complete a précis of the text by writing two or more words into ... in a summary paragraph

face validity

--Students won't perform at their best in a test they don't trust is really assessing properly what they can do. For example, a quick chat in a corridor may tell you lots about a learner's communicative ability but the learner won't feel he/she has been fairly assessed (or assessed at all) --does the test contain a relevant and representative sample of what it is testing? For example, if we set out to test someone's ability to participate in informal spoken transactions, do the test items we use actually test that ability or something else? does the test contain a relevant and representative sample of what it is testing? For example, if we are testing someone's ability to write a formal email, are we getting them to deploy the sorts of language they actually need to do that

discrete-point

--a test format with many items requiring short answers which each target a defined area Example: placement test are usually of this sort with multiple-choice items focused on vocabulary, grammar, functional language etc

proficiency tests

--a test to assess student's language ability for example in public examination --an interview for first certificate

subjective testing

--are those in which questions are open ended and the marker's judgement is important. Of course, there are various levels of test on the subjective-objective scale

informal evaluation

--chatting to students to ask if they benefited from the lesson

integrative testing

--combining many language elements to do the task Example: public examinations contain a good deal of this sort of testing with marks awarded for various elements: accuracy, range, communicative success etc.

holistic marking

--different activities are included in the overall description to produce a multi-activity scale Example: marking an essay on the basis of how well it achieves its aims (see subjective marking, above)

structured response

--in tests of this sort, the subject is given a structure in which to form the answer. Sentence completion items of the sort which require the subject to expand a sentence such as He / come/ my house / yesterday / 9 o'clock into He came to my house at 9 o'clock yesterday are tests of this sort

free response

--in these tests, no guidance is given other than the rubric and the subjects are free to write or say what they like. A hybrid form of this and a structured response item is one where the subject is given a list of things to include in the response

sentence stem

--is a term used in the design of tests or classroom practice materials to indicate the first part of a sentence which students are then given to complete. The ... scaffolds the student's ideas and language production in writing or speaking. Another use of the term is to describe chunks that act as discourse markers to introduce what will be said next. Some examples are 'I would just like to say.....', 'What I'd like to discuss now is ........', 'In this paragraph I will......'. The ... need completing to make sentences. Sentence stems form the basis of language frames in CLIL, where they are sometimes called sentence starters. Example When I'm teaching essay writing to my intermediate or advanced classes I often give them sentence stems to help them structure their writing and adopt the right style. I usually include chunks like: In this essay I will discuss, moving on to my next point...., to sum up, I would like to conclude by .......

Practicality

--is the test deliverable in practice? Does it take hours to do and hours to mark or is it quite reasonable in this regard?

backwash

--is used to describe the effect on teaching that knowledge of the format of a test or examination has. For example, if we are preparing people for a particular style of examination, some (perhaps nearly all) of the teaching will be focused on training learners to perform well in that test format --used in testing and assessment to describe the effect on the classroom of tests that the learners will take --may affect e.g. the syllabus, methodology, interaction patterns, attitudes to learning etc., and can be positive or negative

formal evaluation

--setting a test mid-lesson to see where to go from here

direct testing

--testing a particular skill by getting the student to perform that skill Example: testing whether someone can write a discursive essay by asking them to write one

distractors

--the 'wrong' items are called the ...

analytic marking

--the separate marking of the constituent parts that make up the overall performance Example: breaking down a task into parts and marking each bit separately (see integrative testing, above)

multiple choice

--this is sometimes called a fixed-response test. Typically, the correct answer must be chosen from three or four alternatives.

reliability

--this refers, oddly, to how ... the test is. It answers this question: Would a candidate get the same result whether they took the test in London or Kuala Lumpur or if they took it on Monday or Tuesday? This is sometimes referred to as the test-retest test. A reliable test is one which will produce the same result if it is administered again. Statisticians reading this will immediately understand that it is the correlation between the two test results that measures reliability

alternate response

--this sort of item is probably most familiar to language teachers as a True / False test. (Note that, technically, only two possibilities are allowed. If you have a True / False / Don't know test, then it's really a multiple-choice test.)

indirect testing

--trying to test the abilities which underlie the skills we are interested in testing whether someone can write a discursive essay by testing their ability to use contrastive markers, modality, hedging etc.

construct validity

--you need to be clear in your own head about exactly what skills and abilities are needed to follow the course and how you are testing them. If you can't closely describe what you are testing, the test won't work properly ----does the test measure what we say it measures? For example, if we set out to test someone's ability to participate in informal spoken transactions, do the test items we use actually test that ability or something else?

options

....

external assessment / examining

a learner taking an IELTS examination

formal summative assessment

an end-of-course written test set by the institution

Criterion-referenced tests

are those in which the result is measured against a scale (e.g., by grades from A to E or by a score out of 100). The object is to judge how well someone did against a set of objective criteria independently of any other factors. A good example is a driving test

Norm-referencing

is a way of measuring students against each other. For example, if 10% of a class are going to enter the next class up, a ...-... test will not judge how well they achieved a task in a test but how well they did against the other students in the group. Some universities apply ...-... tests to select undergraduates.

informal testing

listening to learners in the free stage of the lesson to see if they are using the target language

objective marking

marking where only one answer is possible - right or wrong machine marking a multiple-choice test completed by fill in a machine-readable mark sheet Example: machine marking a multiple-choice test completed by filling in a machine-readable mark sheet

information transfer

moving text to a table or map, for instance - is another means of avoiding extended written answers, and lends itself to scanning for specific details

subjective marking

the marks awarded depend on someone's opinion or judgement Example: marking an essay on the basis of how well you think it achieved the task