Language Assessment - Principles and Classroom Practice

Features: Solid foundation in the basics of validity and reliability, as well as all of the different forms of assessment Concise, comprehensive treatment of all four skills includes classification of assessment techniques. Thorough examination of standards-based assessment and standardized testing. Practical examples illustrate principles. End-of-chapter exercises and suggested additional readings provide opportunities for further exploration.

Table of Contents:
Preface   1         Testing, Assessing, and Teaching   What Is a Test? Assessment and Teaching             Informal and Formal Assessment             Formative and Summative Assessment             Norm-Referenced and Criterion-Referenced Test Approaches to Language Testing: A Brief History             Discrete-point and Integrative Testing             Communicative Language Testing             Performance-Based Assessment Current Issues in Classroom Testing             New Views on Intelligence             Traditional and “Alternative” Assessment             Computer-Based Testing Exercises For Your Further Reading   2         Principles of Language Assessment   Practicality Reliability             Student-Related Reliability             Rater Reliability             Test Administration Reliability             Test Reliability Validity             Content-Related Evidence             Criterion-Related Evidence             Construct-Related Evidence             Consequential Validity             Face Validity Authenticity Washback   Applying Principles to the Evaluation of Classroom Tests 1.       Are the test procedures practical? 2.       Is the test reliable? 3.       Does the procedure demonstrate content validity? 4.       Is the procedure face valid and “biased for best”? 5.       Are the test tasks as authentic as possible? 6.       Does the test offer beneficial washback to the learner? Exercises For Your Further Reading   3         Designing Classroom Language Tests   Test Types             Language Aptitude Tests             Proficiency Tests             Placement Test             Diagnostic Tests             Achievement Tests Some Practical Steps to Test Construction             Assessing Clear, Unambiguous Objectives             Drawing Up Test Specifications             Devising Test Tasks             Designing Multiple-Choice Test Items 1.       Design each item to measure a specific objective 2.       State Both stem and options as simply and directly as possible 3.       Make certain that the intended answer is clearly the only correct one 4.       Use item indices to accept, discard, or revise items Scoring, Grading, and Giving Feedback             Scoring             Grading             Giving Feedback Exercises For Your Further Reading   4         Standardized Testing   What Is Standardization? Advantages and Disadvantages of Standardized Tests Developing a Standardized Test 1.       Determine the purpose and objectives of the test 2.       Design test specifications 3.       Design, select, and arrange test tasks/items 4.       Make appropriate evaluations of different kinds of items 5.       Specify scoring procedures and reporting formats 6.       Perform ongoing construct validation studies Standardized Language Proficiency Testing Four Standardized Language Proficiency Tests             Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL®)             Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB)             International English Language Testing System (IELTS)             Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC®) Exercises For Your Further Reading Appendix to Chapter 4: Commercial Proficiency Tests: Sample Items and Tasks Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL®)          Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB) International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC®)   5         Standards-Based Assessment   ELD Standards ELD Assessment CASAS and SCANS Teacher Standards The Consequences of Standards-Based and Standardized Testing             Test Bias             Test-Driven Learning and Teaching Ethical Issues: Critical Language Testing Exercises For Your Further Reading   6         Assessing Listening   Observing the Performance of the Four Skills The Importance of Listening Basic Types of Listening Micro- and Macroskills of Listening Designing Assessment Tasks: Intensive Listening             Recognizing Phonological and Morphological Elements             Paraphrase Recognition Designing Assessment Tasks: Responsive Listening Designing Assessment Tasks: Selective Listening             Listening Cloze             Information Transfer             Sentence Repetition Designing Assessment Tasks: Extensive Listening             Dictation             Communicative Stimulus-Response Tasks             Authentic Listening Tasks Exercises For Your Further Reading   7         Assessing Speaking   Basic Types of Speaking Micro- and Macroskills of Speaking Designing Assessment Tasks: Imitative Speaking PhonePass Test Designing Assessment Tasks: Intensive Speaking             Directed Response Tasks             Read-Aloud Tasks             Sentence/Dialogue Completion Tasks and Oral Questionnaires             Picture-Cued Tasks             Translation (of Limited Stretches of Discourse) Designing Assessment Tasks: Responsive Speaking             Question and Answer             Giving Instructions and Directions             Paraphrasing Test of Spoken English (TSE) Designing Assessment Tasks: Interactive Speaking             Interview             Role Play             Discussions and Conversations             Games Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Designing Assessment: Extensive Speaking             Oral Presentations             Picture-Cued Story-Telling             Retelling a Story, News Event             Translation (of Extended Prose) Exercises For Your Further Reading   8         Assessing Reading   Types (Genres) of Reading Microskills, Macroskills, and Strategies for Reading Types of Reading Designing Assessment Tasks: Perceptive Reading             Reading Aloud             Written Response             Multiple-Choice             Picture-Cued Items Designing Assessment Tasks: Selective Reading             Multiple-Choice (for Form-Focused Criteria)             Matching Tasks Editing Tasks Picture-Cued Tasks Gap-Filling Tasks Designing Assessment Tasks: Interactive Reading             Cloze Tasks             Impromptu Reading Plus Comprehension Questions             Short-Answer Tasks             Editing (Longer Texts)             Scanning             Ordering Tasks             Information Transfer: Reading Charts, Maps, Graphs, Diagrams Designing Assessment Tasks: Extensive Reading             Skimming Tasks             Summarizing and Responding             Note-Taking and Outlining Exercises For Your Further Reading   9         Assessing Writing   Genres of Written Language Types of Writing performance Micro- and Macroskills of Writing Designing Assessment Tasks: Imitative Writing             Tasks in [Hand] Writing Letters, Words, and Punctuation             Spelling Tasks and Detecting Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences Designing Assessment Tasks: Intensive (Controlled) Writing             Dictation and Dicto-Comp             Grammatical Transformation Tasks             Picture-Cued Tasks             Vocabulary Assessment Tasks Ordering Tasks             Short-Answer and Sentence Completion Tasks Issues in Assessing Responsive and Extensive Writing Designing Assessment Tasks: Responsive and Extensive Writing             Paraphrasing             Guided Question and Answer             Paragraph Construction Tasks             Strategic Options Test of Written English (TWE®) Scoring Methods for Responsive and Extensive Writing             Holistic Scoring             Primary Trait Scoring             Analytic Scoring Beyond Scoring Responding to Extensive Writing             Assessing Initial Stages of the Process of Composing             Assessing Later Stages of the Process of Composing Exercises For Your Further Reading   10       Beyond Tests: Alternatives in Assessment   The Dilemma of Maximizing Both Practicality and Washback Performance-Based Assessment Portfolios Journals Conferences and Interviews Observations Self- and Peer-Assessments             Types of Self- and Peer-Assessment             Guidelines for Self- and Peer- Assessment             A Taxonomy of Self- and Peer-Assessment Tasks Exercises For Your Further Reading   11       Grading and Student Evaluation   Philosophy of Grading: What Should Grades Reflect?             Guidelines for Selecting Grading Criteria             Calculating Grades: Absolute and Relative Grading             Teachers’ Perceptions of Appropriate Grade Distributions Institutional Expectations and Constraints             Cross-Cultural Factors and the Question of Difficulty             What Do Letter Grades “Mean”? Alternatives to Letter Grading Some Principles and Guidelines for Grading and Evaluation Exercises For Your Further Reading   Bibliography Name Index Subject Index  

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