TEST Characteristics Purpose Example NotesProficiency It is not limited to any one course, curriculum, or

single skill in the language.It consists of standardized multiple-choice items on grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and aural comprehension.They are always almost summative and norm-referenced.They provide results in the form of a single score (gate-keeping role).Construct specification: the tasks that test-takers are required to perform must be legitimate samples of English language used in a defined context.

To test global competence in a language, i.e. the overall ability.

TOEFL® Test. Time-consuming and expensive.Language teachers shouldn’t attempt to create an overall proficiency test by their own.

Achievement They are (or should be) limited to particular material addressed in a curriculum within a particular time frame.They are offered after a course has focused on the objectives in question.They are often summative because they are administered at the end of a lesson, unit, or term of study.They also play an important formative role, because an effective achievement test will offer feedback about the quality of a learner’s performance.

To measure learners’ ability within a classroom lesson, unit, or even total curriculum.To determine whether course objectives have been met by the end of a given period of instruction.

Classroom-based teacher-made tests.

They can also serve the diagnostic role of indicating what a student needs to continue to work on in the future.They range from 5- to 10-minute quizzes to three-hour final examinations with an almost infinite variety of item types and formats.

Diagnostic They usually offer a checklist of features for the administrator (often the teacher) to use in pinpointing difficulties.They elicit a writing sample from students that allows the teacher to identify those rhetorical and linguistic features on which the course needs to focus special attention.They typically offer detailed and subcategorized information on the learner.

To diagnose aspects of a language that a student needs to develop or that a course should include.

A test in pronunciation.

In contrast with achievement tests, which analyze the extent to which students have acquired language features that have been taught; diagnostic tests elicit information on what students need to work in the future.

Placement They usually include a sampling of the material to be covered in the various courses in a curriculum.

To place a student into a particular level or section

Any placement test

Some would argue that an effective placement test should

EQUIPO 1: Juan Carlos Solís Rivera Russell Díaz Perera Angel Avila PérezDiego Cruz Escalante Karen Tun Díaz

A student’s performance on this kind of test should indicate the point at which the student will find material neither too easy nor too difficult but appropriately challenging.They can also offer a breakdown of strengths and weaknesses that students showed.They can take on a formative role as they provide teachers with useful information on what may or may not need to be emphasized in the weeks to come.They are practical regarding cost, speed in scoring, and efficient reporting of results.

of a language curriculum or school.(Secondary benefit) To offer diagnostic information on a student’s performance.

administered at a language institute.

be diagnostic as well.

Language aptitude

They require students to perform language-related tasks such as number learning, distinguishing speech sounds, detecting grammatical functions, and memorizing paired associates.They are seldom used today, with the exception of identifying foreign language-learning disability.They more often provide learners with information about their preferred styles and their potential strengths and weaknesses, with follow-up strategies for capitalizing on the strengths and overcoming the weaknesses.

To measure capacity or general ability to learn a foreign language a priori (before taking a course) and ultimate predicted success in that undertaking.

The Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT)Primsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB)

There is no research to show unequivocally that these kinds of tests predict communicative success in a language, especially untutored acquisition of the language.

Computer-Based Testing

Reference

Brown, D. (2010). Language Assesment: Principles and Classroom Practices (2nd ed.). Pearson: USA.

EQUIPO 1: Juan Carlos Solís Rivera Russell Díaz Perera Angel Avila PérezDiego Cruz Escalante Karen Tun Díaz