As Jones (1979,p.50) believed that “ by following established procedures,it is possible to design a format for administering and scoring a valid and reliable language performance test”. However, it seems to be an exceedingly simplified opinion of performance testing given the complication of validity as well as reliability problems in assessment. Alderson et al. mention (2001) that someone can impossibly produce a good test or a good item. The writer realizes which item is focused on the test and find it uneasy to understand that in fact it can be testing either something different or addition to which is being concentrated. Additionally, Lado (1961) no test is a perfect measure, so it is always an important responsibility for testing researchers, teachers as well as markers to know how to design a test which assesses the best abilities of candidates. There are many issues involved in performance assessment and particularly validity, reliability, authenticity and backwash effects have made language testers as well as educators concern them. In regards, it is the purpose of commentary to briefly discuss validity, reliability, authenticity and backwash issues and then the given writing task with approaches described in it will be analyzed following these features above and some solutions to improve the effect and quality of this writing task will be also proposed in this essay. Finally, there are some main arguments and conclusions in the context of assessment.
1. Discussion on aspects of the writing task
The target of this writing task is to assess the basic writing skill of 95 teenage students,who are demanded to think about an occasion when they travel somewhere on a very long journey.
Look at traditional validities in most...
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...n the writing test , but one of them also contributes the success of the quality test.
Conclusion
The teachers need to know how background their students are and their cultural environment and before force them to do an exercise, the teacher should help students spending some experience. That’s why it will help students’ writitng more relibale and authentic writing. There are some main strengths and weakness of the item and the marking approaches,indicate main backwash effect. Another concern is that circumanstance related the test should be supplied because it will help tester to define the directions and also influence on the efficacy of the writing test. Finaly, the purpose of the test must be clear and linked to the target of the course syllabus. The results of the scores will reflect student’s knowledge and it is important to give feedback to student to help
In the play “An inspector calls” by J.B priestly, Mr Birling and Shelia Birling have contrasting attitudes to social issues. The author uses this to difference to highlight the diversity between generations and their reaction to situations faced. Arthur Birling is the father to Shelia Birling and is presented as the old fashion generation whereas Shelia is the young generation, who is more aware of the responsibility she has towards other people.The play begins with Mr birling and his family celebrating the engagement of Shelia and Gerald. The atmosphere is happy and light-hearted. Before the inspector arrives, Mr Birling is happy with life and himself “It’s one of the happiest nights of my life.” This shows that Mr Birling is quire selfish because he only thinks that it is one of the happiest nights of his life and not of Shelia and Gerald.
It is not only the contribution by the teachers that determine the performance of students, but other factors, for example, the reading materials and the students’ background. T...
Of the lessons of this course, the distinction made between story and situation will be the most important legacy in my writing. I learned a great travel essay cannot be merely its situation: its place, time, and action. It requires a story, the reader’s internal “journey of discovery.” While the importance of establishing home, of balancing summary and scene, and other lessons impacted my writing, this assertion at least in my estimation the core argument of the course.
Dillon, Naomi. “LANGUAGE TEST. (cover story).” American School Board Journal 192.8 (2005): 10. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 18 Feb. 2001.
One of the most controversial topics in education today is the use of Provincial Achievement Testing, also know as PAT. PATs’ are used to assess and assist in improving programs, maintain standards and improve student achievement. These tests are standard tests that are at the same academic level for all students and focus on the same curriculum topics. All students write these tests at roughly the same time during the school in the same grade. In most provinces, students write PATs’ in grades three and six in elementary school. These tests feature sections from the core subject areas; math, literacy, science and social studies. Schools with french immersion have tests written in french with a french language sections as well. These tests are used to provide additional information regarding the students’ and school’s achievement. However, some organizations use this to compare schools and districts. Some teachers lack an understanding of these assessments and change their teaching practices to fit this perception. Teachers are focus to much on the basic information being covered by the test, and both all the curriculum that is listed. Teachers need to look at the difference between the assessment of learning over the assessment for learning. The view of assessing of learning has given external testing a lower view by teachers. External testing is used for checking the quality of education. There are three issues regarding assessing student learning with achievement testing, they are: the weak understanding of fair assessment, the perception of external accountability initiatives and the inappropriate assessment of at-risk students.
This article, reporting on the research done by Margo Glew and Charlene Polio of Michigan State University, examines writing assessment in a different way than most research on the topic. The goal of this research was to look into how an ESL student chooses prompts for a writing exam when offered a choice. Polio and Glew not only investigate how they choose, but how long it takes each student to choose and if they should even be given a choice at all.
In the society of today, there are various educators who believe in assessment as proper method to measure the performance of a child in school as well as the overall achievement of a specific school system. The assessment may be presented in the form of verbal, written, or multiple choice, and it usually pertains to certain academic subjects in the school curriculum. Recently, many educators began to issue standardized tests to measure the intelligence of a common student body. (Rudner, 1989) These standardized tests were initially created to reveal the success in institutional school programs, and exhibit the abilities of students today. The standardized tests can reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a student as well as the admission into certain programs. The test results also assist various schools in determining the proper curriculum, evaluate a specific school system, or a particular school related program.
Students in Eleventh Grade College Preparatory English classes will be able to read a writing prompt and understand what it is asking them to do. They will demonstrate this by being able to restate the prompt into a topic sentence and articulate their response with an appropriate thesis statement. In addition they will be able to organize their paper and support their ideas with evidence from the text provided.
In 'An Inspector Calls', by J B Priestley, Mr Arthur Birling is an affluent industrialist in addition to being the father of Eric and Sheila Birling. Mrs Birling, his wife, if of a higher social level than Mr Birling himself, although Mr Birling lives an established socially-distinguished life: “You'll apologize at once ... I'm a public man”, demonstrates Mr Birling attempting to use his social power against the inspector but in futility. The Inspector reminds Mr Birling that Birling is not just responsible for his actions, but for his failure to see that his public position entails a duty of responsibility to other people. Interestingly, this attitude draws on the traditional notion of the upper classes taking responsibility for the welfare of the lower classes, but in the newer, more democratic life of Britain, the "public men" are not necessarily of higher social class even if they have more public privileges; at any rate, their position of power comes with responsibility. Nonetheless, the audience knows little of Birling’s nature or profounder details regarding his habits. Howeve...
Evidence – some centres will have their own procedure in place when it comes to gathering evidence and making assessment decision. For example, some centres will require you as an Assessor to have not less than three direct observation sessions with your learner, anything less than 3 will not be acceptable. Sometimes, centres might have a minimum number of times that a criteria has to be covered before it is signed
In the past, assessments were popularly conducted for the purpose of accreditation, but with the growing change in the quality of education, it has become evident that assessments aren’t just products to qualification but as Sieborger (1998) identifies, is that assessment is the process of gathering and interpreting knowledge to make valid and justifiable judgements about the learners performance and the assessors ability to transfer and establish knowledge to the learners. What is pivotal in assessment is that it enhances teaching and learning; it is also the crucial link between learning outcomes, the content that is taught and learning activities. Furthermore, Sieborger (1998) states that assessment is a reciprocal process; as it is used by both learners and teachers to decide where the learners are at in their learning and where they need to go and how best to get there. The characteristics that Sieborger identifies to be contained in assessment are made up of: tasks, exercises, tests and exams, which are set and assessed by educators. There are different methods and uses of assessment that are used in the Education system, the reason for this, is that not all assessments serve the same purpose for its methodologies, the feedback that learners receive needs to correspond with the purpose of the assessment.
Consequently, with communicative goal as the main focus, writing activity in the class is set to a minimum. Students will use writing as a means to assist their speaking activities (e.g. writing interview questions, writing partners’ responses, and writing their preferences, etc.). This, however, does not mean that writing is a less important form of communication. The students probably also need writing in their working environment, so it becomes important to teach them how to use the targeted features in written communication. Therefore, to keep it balance, writing is given as homework and to make it relevant to the objective, the students will be asked to write a short email, which is one example of the way people write to communicate in the real life.
Based on the Programme for International Student Assessment’s 2012 results (PISA), the United States has ranked 30th in comparison to other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) participating countries. The United States, a country that has once held the ideal for educational standards, has now ranked just slightly above other countries that are just being developed. By using high-stakes test statistics to drive America’s educational standards, classrooms are beginning to lose their meaning of helping students to learn and grow as individuals. Because of classrooms just teaching the test are beginning to lose the meaning of helping students to learn and grow as individuals, results of high stakes testing which can be affected by the minutest details, are not a reasonable way to judge overall student competency; a better alternative would be by performance based assessments. “Test developers are obliged to create a series of one-size-fits-all assessments. But, as most of us know from attempting to wear one-size-fits-all garments, sometimes one size really can’t fit all.” (Popham, James W.). High stakes tests are not a reasonable way to judge overall student competency because educators can not expect to have accurate and precise results in just one sitting for 12 years of learning. Although tests pose an important role in education, they should not be given such high stakes of determining if a student should be rejected from a college “based solely on the fact that their score wasn’t high enough” (Stake, Robert.).
The ability to test a student’s language skills is essential to have as a teacher. Over the years, classrooms have become much more diverse with a wide variety of impairments being presented on a daily basis. Often, these disabilities contain a language impairment that appears as a side effect of the main disability. Unfortunately, assessing language is not as easy as one may think because it is not clearly defined and understood. Kuder (2008) writes that “…language is not a unitary phenomenon- it is ‘multidimensional, complex, and dynamic; it involves many interrelated processes and abilities; and it changes from situation to situation” (pg. 274). Language also develops at different times for different individuals, thus making language assessment an even harder task for test administrators to grade and evaluate. In order to further understand the language impairment that students present, teachers need to be aware of appropriate language tests that could be administered. In order to assure that the best language test is being issued to a student, several various tests exist to choose from. To test a student’s overall language capability, a comprehensive language test, such as the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL) or the Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS), could be administered. If a teacher wanted to test a specific language skill such as pragmatics, phonology, syntax, or semantics, the teacher would need to find the best test for the student’s unique situation.
In spite of the importance of assessment in education, few teachers receive proper training on how to design or analyze assessments. Due to this, when teachers are not provided with suitable assessments from their textbooks or instructional resources, teachers construct their own in an unsystematic manner. They create questions and essay prompts comparable to the ones that their teachers used, and they treat them as evaluations to administer when instructional activities are completed predominantly for allocating students' grades. In order to use assessments to improve instruction and student learning, teachers need to change their approach to assessments by making sure that they create sound assessments. To ensure that their assessments are sound they need include five basic indicators that can be used as steps to follow when creating assessments. The first of these indicators and the first step a teacher must take when creating a sound assessme...