UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DE LA SANTÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN

FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN

ASSESSING TESTS DESIGNS ASSESSMENT

Teacher: Gabriela Sanhueza

Student: Marcela GaticaNidia Gil C.

June, 2015.

INTRODUCTION

The following assignment will consider the designing of a test which will help to

assess a productive skill, in this case, speaking.

It is important to mention, that this assignment has been developed considering

Luoma (2004) test specifications. Furthermore, a rubric has been designed to evaluate the

test.

SPEAKING TEST

● List of test specifications from Luoma (2004).

The test's purpose To assess Student´s domain of units contents at the end

of the semester.

Description of the

examinees

2nd grade of highschool.

Test level Intermediate level of English

Definitions of construct

(theoretical framework

for the test)

Students should be able to describe pictures about people

eating in restaurants, discuss about different kinds of

food and give opinions.

Description of suitable

language course of

textbook

The students work thoughout the semester based on the

textbook “looking ahead 2º medio”, from the Chilean

Ministry of education.

Number of

sections/papers

This oral test is divided in three sections.

1. Describing pictures about people eating in

different places.

2. Getting to an agreement.

3. Giving opinions.

Time for each

section/paper

Section 1: 1 -1  1/2 minutes per test-taker.

Section 2: 2 -3 minutes.

Section 3: 1 - 2 minutes per test- taker.

Total: 10 minutes.

Weighting for each

section/paper

Total: 35  points.

Target language situation ● Describing pictures about people eating in

restaurants: “I can see” “the restaurant is/looks

like” , “there is/ there are”, “they are eating/

drinking..”

● Getting to an agreement; “Let's agree that”, “our

agreement is”, “I agree with you”, “I think you

are right”, “I totally agree with you”, “I prefer”.

● Extemporaneous speaking/ expressing opinions “I

think that”, “In my opinion”,” I believe that”, “I

consider that..” , “Healthy food “ “unhealthy

food”

Text types Images.

Text length 10 minutes.

Language skills to be

tested

Speaking mainly.

Listening and reading in a lower degree.

Language elements to be

tested

● Lexical knowledge (vocabulary).

The ability to process instructions

● The ability to infer meaning from images or

context.

● Knowledge about food, kinds of food, healthy and

unhealthy food, places for eating.

● Ability to interact with one another.

● Discourse conventions

Test tasks Describing.

Getting to an agreement.

Expressing opinions

Test methods Instructions

Rubrics Analytic.

Criteria for marking ● Range of vocabulary.

● Pronunciation

● Fluency.

● Use of grammar.

● Topic comprehension.

Interaction.

Subject general knowledge.

● Additional Information

Warm up activity: Personal Information.

For the majority of the students, performing an oral examination involves getting

very nervous or feeling pressure, which could affect their performance development.

Considering this, it is essential to add a warm- up activity to control students’ anxiety and

fear, helping them to feel more comfortable. This activity will be based on asking the test

takers personal information which will not be assessed.

The following questions are considered to be asked in this warm up activity:

What’s your name?, Where do you come from?, How are you, today?, How was your

weekend?

II. Testing task descriptions (Fulcher, n.d)

Task n° 1:   Describing pictures about food.

Student A:

Look at these pictures for a few seconds. Now tell me. What do you see in the

pictures? Tell me about the food, which type of food is it? Now, describe the people that

appear in the pictures. You have 1 minute.

Student B:

Look at these pictures for a few seconds. Now tell me. What do you see in the

pictures? Tell me about the food, which type of food is it? Now, describe the people that

appear in the pictures. You have 1 minute.

Task specifications.

Task orientation Guided task through instructions.

Interactional

relationship

One way: tester-test taker.

Goal orientation Convergent: Test takers produce a correct description about

people eating different types of food (kind of food, type of

restaurant).

Interlocutor status

and familiarity

Higher status: tester- test-taker.

Lower status: test-taker- tester.

Low familiarity: tester, test- taker.

Topics People eating, different kinds of food, places to eat, healthy

and unhealthy food.

Task n° 2: Getting to an agreement.

Student A and student B

Look at these pictures for a few seconds. You will have a friends’ meeting on Friday night.

Regarding time, money and taste, which of these types of food will you prefer?  You must

get to an agreement deciding which is the best option for your friends’ meeting. You have 2

to 3 minutes.

Task specifications.

Task orientation Guided task through instructions.

Interactional relationship One way: interaction between the test takers.

Goal orientation Convergent: the two test takers must get to an agreement.

Divergent: Test takers develop ideas in order to support

their choice.

Interlocutor status and

familiarity

Same status between test takers and high familiarity with

test takers interaction.

Topics Food, healthy and unhealthy food.

Task n° 3: Giving opinions.

Student A.

Look at these pictures related to food, now give your opinion about them, for example,

what do you prefer, what do you think about eating outside and so on . Support your ideas.

You have 1 to 2 minutes.

Student B.

Look at these pictures related to food, now give your opinion about them, for example,

what do you prefer, what do you think about eating outside and so on . Support your ideas.

You have 1 to 2 minutes.

Task specifications.

Task orientation Open: Test taker speaks freely about the topic.

Interactional relationship One way: Test taker and tester

Goal orientation Divergent: Test takers develop ideas about the topic

given.

Interlocutor status and

familiarity

High status: tester, test-taker

Low familiarity: tester, test-taker.

Topics Healthy and unhealthy food

Different places to eat.

Eating with family / friends .

III. Scoring procedure: Analytic rubric.

Student´s name: Grade: Mark:

CRITERIA POOR (1) NEEDS

IMPROVE

MENT (2)

SATISFACTO

RY (3)

GOOD (4) EXCELLENT

(5)

Range of

vocabulary

Very restrictive use of vocabularyseen in class and not always accurate.

Use of some vocabulary seen in class but not always accurate.

Use of most of the vocabulary seen in class but not always accurate.

Use of most of the vocabulary seen in class in an accurate way.

Use of the vocabulary seen in class in an accurate way.

Pronunciatio

n

There are more than 8 errors in pronunciation that interfere with the understanding of the message

There are 7 – 6 errors in pronunciation that interfere with the understanding of the message.

There are 5 – 4 errors in pronunciation that do not interfere with the understanding of the message.

There are 3 -2 errors in pronunciation that do not interfere with the understanding of the message.

There is 1 or 0 error in pronunciation that do not interfere with the understanding of the message.

Fluency Speech halting and uneven with long pauses or not sustained

Speech choppy and slow with frequent pauses; some sustained

Speech sustained with some efforts; there is some hesitation, but manages to

Speech sustained most of the time; some hesitation but manages to

Speech sustained throughout with natural pauses.

speech. speech. continue. continue.Grammar There are

more than 8 errors in the grammar learnt in the unit.

There are 6 - 7 errors in the grammar learnt in the unit.

There are 4 - 5 errors in the grammar learnt in the unit.

There are 2 - 3 errors in the grammar learnt in the unit.

There is 1 or 0 error in the grammar learnt in the unit.

Topic

comprehensi

on

Student is unable to understand and answer all the questions.

Student shows some difficulty to understand and answer the questions.

Student understands and answers most of the questions.

Student understands and answers all the questions.

Student understands and answers all the questions properly.

Interaction Student does not participate in the interaction with his/her classmate, neither gives ideas to support his /her partner.

Student’s tries to participate in the interaction with his/her partner, giving not many ideas and being not very supportive.

Student participates with his/her partner, giving ideas, trying to support him/her.

Student participates actively at the moment of interact with his/her partner, giving ideas, and supporting him/her almost all the time.

Student participates actively when interacting with his/her partner, giving ideas and supporting him/her.

Subject

general

knowledge

Student shows no knowledge of the unit contents and topic.

Student shows a lack of knowledge of the unit contents, however, he/she tries to manage the topic.

Student shows a general knowledge of the unit contents, trying to manage it.

Student shows a complete knowledge of the unit contents, trying to manage it in an appropriate way.

Student shows a complete knowledge of the unit contents. Managing the topic properly.

SCORE:  35 POINTS

Sample papers

English Speaking test (June, 2015)

Objective: Assess unit contents at the end of the semester.

I. Task n° 1: Describing pictures about people eating in a restaurant.

Student A:

Look at these pictures for a few seconds. Now tell me: What do you see in the picture?,

What kind of food are they eating?. Describe the environment and the food you can see.

You have 1 minute.

Student B

Look at these pictures for a few seconds. Now tell me: What do you see in the picture?

What kind of food are they eating? Describe the environment and the food you can see.

You have 1 minute.

II. Task n°2: Getting to an agreement.

Student A and Student  B

Look at these pictures for a few seconds. You will have a friends’ meeting on Friday

night. Regarding time, money and taste, which of these types of food will you prefer?

You must get to an agreement deciding which is the best option for your friends meeting.

You have 2 to 3 minutes.

III. Task n°3: Extemporaneous speaking/ giving opinions.

Look at these pictures related to food, now give your opinion about them, for example, what

do you prefer, what do you think about eating outside and so on . Support your ideas. You

have 1 to 2 minutes.

REFERENCES

Fulcher, G. (n.d). Assessing Speaking: putting the pieces together.

Luoma, S. (2004). Assessing Speaking. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.