Download or read book Writing English Language Tests The Role of Testing in the Teaching and Leaning Process written by Joachim Von Meien and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2007-11 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English - Pedagogy, Didactics, Literature Studies, grade: 2 (B), Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, 11 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Writing English language tests is a topic very many students and of course also their teachers have to deal with. Often testing does not have a very good reputation, especially when regarding the students. Most of them are probably happy when a test is over and enjoy the time without them. But testing has much more functions than a superficial look at it will provide. Chapter 3.1 of this paper deals with the numerous purposes and is also supposed to show the important role that testing plays in the teaching process. This paper will concentrate on the writing skill and the evaluation of it. The other three skills reading, listening and speaking are not the centre of research. But it is not possible to exclude them because they are all interrelated to the writing skill as this paper wants to show. What is it that makes especially the writing skill and also the testing of it so sophisticating and complex? Writing at an advanced level is usually compositional writing or essay writing. Chapter 2.3 concentrates on that kind of writing and points out its often difficult prerequisites, even for writers in the native language. What are the necessary features of tests in general? It is supposed to become clear that certain conditions such as validity, reliability and practicality are extremely important for written assessment and for every other assessment too. Many people, even if they never actively scored a test, are able to imagine the difficulties of a fair and objective judgement. Especially when dealing with compositional writing, that assumption is true. But nevertheless there are ways to improve the objectivity of evaluation even if a rest of subjectivity can not be avoided. Chapter 3.5 focuses on ways to judge tests adequately. Writing English language te

Download or read book Writing English Language Tests written by John Brian Heaton and published by Longman Publishing Group. This book was released on 1975 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ANGLAIS (LANGUE), enseignement

Download or read book Writing English Language Tests written by John Brian Heaton and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Testcraft written by Fred Davidson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIVThe creation of language tests is—and should be—a craft that is accessible and doable not only by a few language test experts, but also by many others who are involved in second/foreign language education, say the authors of this clear and timely book. Fred Davidson and Brian Lynch offer language educators a how-to guide for creating tests that reliably measure exactly what they are intended to measure. Classroom teachers, language administrators, and professors of language testing courses will find in this book an easy and flexible approach to language testing as well as the tools they need to develop tests appropriate to their individual needs. Davidson and Lynch explain criterion-related language test development, a process that focuses on the early stages of test development when the criterion to be tested is defined, specifications are established, and items and tasks are written. This process helps clarify the description of what is being measured by a test and enables teachers to give input on test design in any instructional setting. Informed by extensive research in criterion-referenced measurement, this book invites all language educators to participate in the craft of test development and shows them how to go about it./div

Download or read book Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing written by IRA/NCTE Joint Task Force on Assessment and published by International Reading Assoc.. This book was released on 2009-12-03 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With this updated document, IRA and NCTE reaffirm their position that the primary purpose of assessment must be to improve teaching and learning for all students. Eleven core standards are presented and explained, and a helpful glossary makes this document suitable not only for educators but for parents, policymakers, school board members, and other stakeholders. Case studies of large-scale national tests and smaller scale classroom assessments (particularly in the context of RTI, or Response to Intervention) are used to highlight how assessments in use today do or do not meet the standards.

Download or read book The Power of Tests written by Elana Shohamy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-25 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language in Social Life is a major series which highlights the importance of language to an understanding of issues of social and professional concern. It will be of practical relevance to all those wanting to understand how the ways we communicate both influence and are influenced by the structures and forces of contemporary social institutions. In all modern societies individuals are subject to tests, whether to enter educational programs, to pass from one level to the next or to grant certificates to practice. Yet, tests are powerful tools which are often introduced in undemocratic and unethical ways as disciplinary tools for carrying out various policy agendas. Tests can be detrimental to people's lives as they are capable of affecting and defining the knowledge and behaviour of those who are being tested. The Power of Tests applies a critical perspective of language tests by examining their uses and consequences in education and society and by viewing tests not as isolated events but rather as embedded in social, educational and political contexts. The book is divided into four parts: the first part establishes the power of tests through echoing the voices of test takers, describing the features of the power of tests, and the temptations that tests offer to bureaucrats who use them for power and control. The second part reports on studies that provide empirical evidence about intentions and effects of a number of large scale language tests. The third part interprets the results by examining their consequences on education and society, arriving at a model of tests' use. The final section of the book offers strategies for controlling and minimising the misuses of tests by introducing the notion of Critical Language Testing which calls for the examination of the consequences and misuses of tests, monitoring of power and pointing to their unethical uses. It also provides a comprehensive discussion of the responsibilities of language testers, including a new Code of Ethics, as well as strategies for guarding and protecting the rights of test takers.

Download or read book Language Assessment written by H. Douglas Brown and published by Pearson Education ESL. This book was released on 2018-03-16 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices is designed to offer a comprehensive survey of essential principles and tools for second language assessment. Its first and second editions have been successfully used in teacher-training courses, teacher certification curricula, and TESOL master of arts programs. As the third in a trilogy of teacher education textbooks, it is designed to follow H. Douglas Brown's other two books, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (sixth edition, Pearson Education, 2014) and Teaching by Principles(fourth edition, Pearson Education, 2015). References to those two books are made throughout the current book. Language Assessment features uncomplicated prose and a systematic, spiraling organization. Concepts are introduced with practical examples, understandable explanations, and succinct references to supportive research. The research literature on language assessment can be quite complex and assume that readers have technical knowledge and experience in testing. By the end of Language Assessment, however, readers will have gained access to this not-so-frightening field. They will have a working knowledge of a number of useful, fundamental principles of assessment and will have applied those principles to practical classroom contexts. They will also have acquired a storehouse of useful tools for evaluating and designing practical, effective assessment techniques for their classrooms.

Download or read book Classroom Testing written by John Brian Heaton and published by Addison Wesley Publishing Company. This book was released on 1990 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Longman Keys to Language Teaching series is intended especially for ordinary teachers. The books in the "Keys" series offer realistic, practical, down-to-earth advice on useful techniques and approaches in the modern ELT classroom. Most of the activities suggested in these books can be adapted and used for almost any class, by any teacher. One of the subjects of most concern to all teachers is classroom testing. For what reasons should we do it? How should we do it? How often should we do it? How should we organise it? Can it be harmful? What is the relationship between teaching and testing? These are just some of the questions that Brian Heaton addresses in this book. With a minimum of jargon, a number of fundamental concepts are treated in an accessible manner. As well as a discussion of these important issues, the author includes a great many examples of tests that teachers can adapt and use in their own classrooms. In addition, he gives advice on the role of continuous assessment, in which there has been an increasing amount of interest in recent years. The book also contains some suggestions on oral testing - including how to cope with this in large classes.

Download or read book Practical Language Testing written by Glenn Fulcher and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-26 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Practical Language Testing equips you with the skills, knowledge and principles necessary to understand and construct language tests. This intensely practical book gives guidelines on the design of assessments within the classroom, and provides the necessary tools to analyse and improve assessments, as well as deal with alignment to externally imposed standards. Testing is situated both within the classroom and within the larger social context, and readers are provided the knowledge necessary to make realistic and fair decisions about the use and implementation of tests. The book explains the normative role of large scale testing and provides alternatives that the reader can adapt to their own context. This fulfils the dual purpose of providing the reader with the knowledge they need to prepare learners for tests, and the practical skills for using assessment for learning. Practical Language Testing is the ideal introduction for students of applied linguistics, TESOL and modern foreign language teaching as well as practicing teachers required to design or implement language testing programmes. The book is supported by frequently updated online resources at http://languagetesting.info/ including sets of scenarios providing resources to study aviation English assessment, call centre assessment, military language assessment, and medical language assessment. The materials can be used to structure debates and seminars, with pre-reading and video activities. Practical Language Testing was commended as a 2012 runner-up of the prestigious SAGE/ILTA Award for Best Book on Language Testing.

Download or read book Challenges in Language Testing Around the World written by Betty Lanteigne and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-02-17 with total page 553 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book combines insights from language assessment literacy and critical language testing through critical analyses and research about challenges in language assessment around the world. It investigates problematic practices in language testing which are relevant to language test users such as language program directors, testing centers, and language teachers, as well as teachers-in-training in Graduate Diploma and Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics programs. These issues involve aspects of language testing such as test development, test administration, scoring, and interpretation/use of test results. Chapters in this volume discuss insights about language testing policy, testing world languages, developing program-level language tests and tests of specific language skills, and language assessment literacy. In addition, this book identifies two needs in language testing for further examination: the need for collaboration between language test developers, language test users, and language users, and the need to base language tests on real-world language use.

Download or read book Examining Writing written by Stuart D. Shaw and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-07-05 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Test developers need to provide a clear explication of the language ability constructs that underpin the tests they offer in the public domain; such an explication is essential for supporting claims about the validity - or usefulness - of test scores. This volume describes the theory and practice of Cambridge ESOL's approach to assessing second language writing ability. A comprehensive test validation framework is used to examine the tasks in Cambridge ESOL writing tests from a number of different validity perspectives that reflect the socio-cognitive nature of any assessment event. The authors show how an understanding and analysis of the framework and its components can assist test developers to operationalise their tests more effectively, especially in relation to the key criteria that differentiate one proficiency level from another. The book provides: an up-to-date review of relevant literature on assessing writing, an accessible and systematic description of the different proficiency levels in second language writing, a comprehensive and coherent basis for validating tests of writing. This volume is a rich source of information on all aspects of examining writing ability. As such, it will be of considerable interest to examination boards who wish to validate their own writing tests in a systematic and coherent manner, as well as to academic researchers and students in the field of language assessment more generally. Book jacket.

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Language Testing written by Glenn Fulcher and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 551 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the SAGE/ILTA Book Award 2016 The Routledge Handbook of Language Testing will provide a comprehensive account of the area of language assessment and testing. Written by leading specialists from around the world, this volume brings together approximately 35 authoritative articles (around 8000 words each). The proposed outline for the Handbook (below) is divided into ten sections. The section titles reflect the contents of their Language Testing and Assessment –textbook in our RAL series and sketch a useful overview of the discipline. Each chapter has been carefully selected to relate to key issues raised in the respective topic, providing additional historical background, critical discussion, reviews of key research methods, and an assessment of what the future might hold.

Download or read book Language Assessment Literacy written by Dina Tsagari and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2020-04-21 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of language testing and assessment has recognized the importance and underlying theoretical and practical underpinnings of language assessment literacy (LAL), an area that is gradually coming to prominence. This book addresses issues that promote the concept of LAL for language research, teaching, and learning, covering a range of topics. It brings together 14 chapters based on high-stakes and classroom-based studies authored by academics, professionals and researchers in the field. The text examines diverse issues through a multifaceted approach, presenting high-quality contributions that fill a gap in a research area that has long been in need of theoretical and empirical attention.

Download or read book Language Test Construction and Evaluation written by J. Charles Alderson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-05-26 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes the process of language test construction and reviews current practice.

Download or read book Local Language Testing written by Slobodanka Dimova and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-02-20 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Local Language Testing: Design, Implementation, and Development describes the language testing practice that exists in the intermediate space between large-scale standardized testing and classroom assessment, an area that is rarely addressed in the language testing and assessment literature. Covering both theory and practice, the book focuses on the advantages of local tests, fosters and encourages their use, and provides suggested ideas for their development and maintenance. The authors include examples of operational tests with well-proven track records and discuss: the ability of local tests to represent local contexts and values, explicitly and purposefully embed test results within instructional practice, and provide data for program evaluation and research; local testing practices grounded in the theoretical principles of language testing, drawing from experiences with local testing and providing practical examples of local language tests, illustrating how they can be designed to effectively function within and across different institutional contexts; examples of how local language tests and assessments are developed for use within a specific context and how they serve a variety of purposes (e.g., entry-level proficiency testing, placement testing, international teaching assistant testing, writing assessment, and program evaluation). Aimed at language program directors, graduate students, and researchers involved in language program development and evaluation, this is a timely book in that it focuses on the advantages of local tests, fosters and encourages their use, and outlines their development and maintenance. It constitutes essential reading for language program directors, graduate students, and researchers involved in language program development and evaluation.

Download or read book From Testing to Assessment written by Clifford Hill and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Testing to Assessment: English as an International Language provides a critical review of conventional and alternative approaches to the assessment of English literacy skills in various parts of the world. It presents empirical studies conducted in three major settings: in countries such as Japan and Brazil where English functions as the language of international commernce; in multilingual countries such as Nigeria and Zimbabwe where English is the national language of education and government; and in such countries as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States where English is the dominant language. The book opens with a discussion of language assessment in relation to debates about the nature of literacy; it concludes with a discussion of policy implications, which is grounded in literacy theory as well as in practical constraints such as available human and material resources.

Download or read book Building a Validity Argument for the Test of English as a Foreign LanguageTM written by Carol A. Chapelle and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-04-06 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Test of English as a Foreign Language TM (TOEFL®) is used by more universities worldwide than any other test to assess English language proficiency for academic admission and placement decisions, and to guide English language instruction. This landmark volume provides a detailed description and analysis of Educational Testing Service’s research and development efforts to develop a major revision of the TOEFL® test. The result is a book that serves as a case study of test design drawing upon theory in the complex domain of English language proficiency while attempting to meet standards of educational measurement. Building a Validity Argument for the Test of English as a Foreign LanguageTM is distinctive in its attempt to develop a coherent story of the rationale for a test or its revision, explain the research and development process, and provide the results of the validation process. Through its treatment of one test, it expands on and tests principles and approaches to educational measurement, providing an in-depth, integrated perspective on the overall process of test revision. Moreover, because the conceptual foundation and history are presented alongside the empirical studies and validity argument, these sometimes disparate areas are presented in a way that demonstrates their connections – an approach which represents a departure from, or extension of, conventional materials on test revision. This volume is particularly relevant for professionals and graduate students in educational measurement, applied linguistics, and second language acquisition as well as anyone interested in assessment issues.