CHAPTER 3

KINDS OF TEST
AND TESTING
1/ How many types of
test are there? Give
example.
2/ What is the purpose
for each type?
 A. Types of tests
There are four main reasons for testing,
which give rise to four main categories of test:
1/ Proficiency Tests

2/ Achievement Tests/
Progress Tests

3/ Diagnostic Tests

4/ Placement Tests
 Finding out
about proficiency

PROFICIENCY
TESTS
 Proficiency tests
• Proficiency tests are designed to
measure people’s ability in a
language, regardless of any training
they may have had in that
language.
 Proficiency tests
• The content of a proficiency test is not
based on the content or objectives of
language courses that people taking
the test may have followed.
--> based on a specification of what
candidates have to be able to do in the
language in order to be considered
proficient.
 Proficiency tests
• ‘proficient’ means having sufficient
command of the language for a particular
purpose.
- Ex: a test designed to discover whether
someone can function successfully as a
United Nations translator.
- Ex: a test used to determine whether a
student’s English is good enough to follow
a course of study at a British university.
 Proficiency tests
• We use proficiency tests to
measure how suitable candidates
will be for performing a certain
task or following a specific course.
• Ex: The British Council administer a
proficiency test to overseas
students intending to study in
universities in Britain.
• Frequently used as stages
people have to reach if they
want to be admitted to a foreign
university, get a job or obtain
some certificate..
Ex: IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, FCE,
CPE...
• Most proficiency tests
concentrate on assessing
candidates’ ability to use English
for a special purpose.
• Ex: A candidate intending to
study medicine in Britain should
be given a different test from a
candidate intending to study
medicine.
• A proficiency test looks forward
to the actual ways in which
candidates will use English in the
future.
• When you design a proficiency
test, therefore, you should pay
careful attention to those
language areas and skills which
the candidate will need.
• Ex: If the successful candidate will work
as a clerk in a commercial office in a
country where English is used for
everyday communication, the test should
concentrate on assessing the ability to
write commercial letters/emails, to
translate commercial documents and
possibly to read and write commercial
reports in English, compose contracts.
 Finding out
about progress

PROGRESS
TESTS
 Progress tests
• The most important reason of testing is to
find out how well the students have
mastered the language areas and skills
which have just been taught.
• These tests look back at what students
have achieved and are called progress
tests.
• Class progress tests are usually the most
important kinds of tests for teacher.
• Unlike most other kinds of tests, progress
tests should produce a cluster of high
marks.
• If we test what has recently been taught
and practised, we should expect students
to score fairly high marks.
• If most of the students fail to score high
marks, something must have been wrong
with the teaching, the syllabus or the
materials.
• Ex: We expect to see most of the
students’ marks concentrated
around 80% or 90% rather than
spread out widely from 0 percent to
100 percent.
• A regular programme of progress tests is
useful as it can help to emphasize certain
language skills.
• However, you should avoid over-testing.
Too many progress tests can have harmful
effect on students’ attitudes to learning.
• The best progress test is one which
students do not recognize as a test but
see as simply an enjoyable and
meaningful activity.
• Be careful to avoid encouraging ROTE
LEARNING in students.
Should write questions which lead to
students applying what they have
learnt.
• Avoid using the same material for
testing that you have been using for
teaching. Instead, use different material
covering the same language areas or
similar tasks.
Finding out about
achievement

ACHIEVEMENT
TESTS
 Achievement tests
• In contrast to proficiency tests,
achievement tests are directly related to
language courses.
--> to establish how successful individual
students, groups of students, or the
courses themselves have been in achieving
objectives.
• Two kinds: final achievement tests and
progress achievement tests.
 Achievement tests
• Similar to class progress test
• Based on a syllabus and measured
what has been taught and learnt
• Contain items types which Sts are
familiar with
• Designed by the faculty/ school/
Department of Education…
 Progress test Achievement test
Cover shorter Cover longer period
period of learning of learning

Cover only some parts of Cover as much of the

the syllabus syllabus as possible

In the middle of At the end of the school

the course year/ the course
 Finding out about
learning difficulties

DIAGNOSTIC
TESTS
 Diagnostic tests
• It is very important to take into account the
needs of our students at every stage in our
teaching, not only concentrate on following
the syllabus and ignore the needs of our
students.
• Ex: Doctors diagnose an illness in order to
cure their patients  teachers must
diagnose problems in order to teach
effectively.
• A good diagnostic test helps us to
check our students’ progress for
specific weaknesses and problems
they may have encountered.
• To find out what these weaknesses
are, we must be systematic when
we design our test  know exactly
what we are testing.
• When we mark a diagnostic test,
we should try to identify and group
together a student’s marks on
particular areas of language.
• Ex: handout
Placing students

PLACEMENT
TESTS
 Placement tests
• Enable us to sort students into
groups according to their language
ability at the beginning of a course.
• Based on syllabuses and materials
the Sts will follow and use later
• Thus, it is essential to examine the
syllabus very carefully while writing
a placement test.
• Ex: If Sts are going to learn about ways
of using the present perfect tense to
talk about past events, we should
include items on the Past Simple Tense/
Present Perfect Tense in our test.
• Ex: If Sts are going to be taught how to
describe processes in making things, we
should include questions on the Passive
Voice.
• A placement test should try to
spread out the students’ scores as
much as possible.
 It is possible to divide Sts into
several groups according to their
various ability levels.
 Portfolio assessment
• For achievement tests and proficiency
tests, Sts get only “one shot” at
showing how much they know  unfair
• “sudden death” testing does not give a
true picture of how well some Sts could
do
 Portfolio over a period of time
(term/semester)
 • To measure language
Proficiency proficiency regardless of any
tests language courses that
candidates may have followed
• To discover how far students
Achievemen have achieved the objectives of
t tests a course of study

• To diagnose students’ strengths

Diagnostic and weaknesses, to identify
tests what they know and what they
do not know
• To assist placement of students
Placement by identifying the stage or part
tests of a teaching program most
appropriate to their ability
 TESTING
Direct vs. Indirect testing

Discrete-point vs. Integrative test-

ing
Criterion-referenced vs.
Norm-referenced testing

Objective vs. Subjective testing

Communicative Language Testing

 1. DIRECT vs. INDIRECT TESTING

• Requires the candidate to

perform precisely the skill which is
measured.

Direct • The tasks and texts should be

as authentic as possible.
testing
• Easier to measure the
productive skills (S & W)
 1. DIRECT vs. INDIRECT TESTING

• E.g. To know how students

Direct pronounce a language  get them
testing to speak
 1. DIRECT vs. INDIRECT TESTING

• E.g. To know how well candidates

Direct can write compositions  get them
testing to write compositions.
 1. DIRECT VS. INDIRECT TESTING

• Measure the abilities

underlying the skills in which we
are interested.
• E.g. Sentence correction
Indirect exercises  an indirect measure
testing of writing ability
Ex: At first the old woman seemed
unwilling to accept anything that
was offered her by my friend and I.
(error identification)
 1. DIRECT VS. INDIRECT TESTING

Indirect • E.g. Odd One Out exercises 

testing an indirect measure of speaking

ability
 ATTRACTIONS = BENEFITS
DIRECT INDIRECT

- Straight-forward to create the

conditions which will elicit the
- Test a

behavior on which to base our representative

judgements. sample of a finite
- The assessment and interpretation of number of abilities
Ss’ performance is quite
underlying a
straightforward
potentially indefinite
- Since practice for the test involves
large number of
practice of the skills that we wish to
foster, there is helpful backwash manifestations of
effect them
 PROBLEMS

DIRECT INDIRECT
Small sample of Weak relationship
tasks between performance on
test and performance of
the skills.
--> We may construct tests of
Gram, Voc, Discourse Markers,
Handwriting, Punctuation, but
we will not be able to predict
 2.1 DISCRETE POINT TESTING

Discrete point testing refers to the

testing of one element at a time,
item by item.

e.g. form of series of items, each testing

a particular grammar structure.
2.1 DISCRETE POINT TESTING
 2.2 INTEGRATIVE TESTING

Integrative testing requires a

combination of many language
elements in a completion of a task.

e.g. writing a composition, taking a

dictation or completing a cloze
passage
2.2 INTEGRATIVE TESTING
3.1 CRITERION–REFERENCED
TESTING

The purpose of criterion–referenced

testing is to classify people according to
whether or not they are able to perform
some tasks or set of tasks satisfactorily.

Ex: Can the student write a letter asking for

information about something? Can the student give
personal details about himself or herself?
3.1 CRITERION–REFERENCED
TESTING
The tasks are set, and those who perform
them satisfactorily ‘pass’; those who don’t,
‘fail’.

--> students are encouraged to measure their

progress in relation to meaningful criteria,
without feeling that, because they are less
able than most of their fellows, they are
destined to fail.
3.1 CRITERION–REFERENCED
TESTING

Criterion-referenced tests therefore have

two positive virtues:

1. they set meaningful standards in terms

of what people can do, which do not
change with different groups of candidates

2. they motivate students to attain those

standards.
3.1 CRITERION–REFERENCED
TESTING
 3.2 NORM–REFERENCED TESTING

Norm–referenced testing relates to one

candidate’s performance compares with the
performances of the other candidate in the

same group.

Ex: Is the student in the top/middle/bottom

part of the group? How many students in
the group are better/worse?
DIMENSION Norm-Referenced Criterion-
S Tests Referenced
Tests
- To rank each - To determine
PURPOS student with whether each
respect to the student has
E achievement of achieved
others in broad specific skills or
areas of concepts.
knowledge. - To find out how
- To discriminate much students
between high and know before
low achievers instruction
begins and after
it has finished.
DIMENSION Norm-Referenced Criterion-
S Tests Referenced
Tests
Measures broad Measures
CONTENT skill areas sampled specific skills
from a variety of which make up a
textbooks, syllabi, designated
and the curriculum.
judgements of These skills are
curriculum experts. identified by
teachers and
curriculum
experts.
Each skill is
expressed as an
instructional
objective.
 Criterion-
Norm-Referenced
DIMENSIONS Referenced
Tests
Tests
- Each skill is - Each skill is
usually tested by tested by at
less than four least four items
items. in order to
- Items vary in obtain an
difficulty. adequate sample
- Items are of student
ITEM selected that performance and
CHARACTERISTICS discriminate to minimize the
between high effect of
and low achievers. guessing.
- The items
which test any
given skill are
parallel in
 Norm-Referenced Criterion-Referenced
DIMENSIONS
Tests Tests

Student A student's
achievement is score is usually
reported for expressed as a
broad skill areas, percentage.
although some Student
norm-referenced achievement is
SCORE tests do report reported for
INTERPRETATION student individual
achievement for skills.
individual skills.
 4. OBJECTIVE VS. SUBJECTIVE
TESTING

Methods of
Subjectiv scoring Objectiv
e e

- Judgement - No judgement
required required
- e.g. essay tests - e.g. multiple
- Different degrees choice tests
of subjectivity
 4. OBJECTIVE VS. SUBJECTIVE
TESTING

• Objectivity in scoring -> reliability

• Less subjective scoring -> greater
agreement (between two different
scorers; between scores of one
person scoring the same test
paper on different occasions)
 5. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
TESTING

Hymes’s theory of communicative

competence (1970s)  influence language
teaching and testing

 Language does not only relate to grammar

rules.
 It also involves culturally specific rules of
use.
 features of communicative context
 5. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
TESTING

Two features

Feature 1. CLTs are performance

tests.ASSESSMENT

Receptive
Learners are engaged in
an act of Productive
communication Both
 5. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
TESTING

Feature 2.
CLTs

Offer a means of
Focus on the
specifying the
social roles in
demands of such roles
real world settings
in detail
E.g. The communicative tests of English as a
Foreign Language for overseas students intending to
study at British universities
 5. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
TESTS

Job analysis is the stage in which the basis for

the test design involves careful study of the

communicative roles and tasks.

Job analysis is used in the development of

tests in occupational settings.

E.g. An Australian test of English as a second language
for health professionals: communicating with patients,
presenting cases to colleagues
Thank you for
your attention!