preliminaries in language testing (chapter one ) in Testing language Skills

1. Testing Language skills
From theory to practice by
Farhady ,PhD
Ja’farpur, PhD
Birjandi,PhD
Power point developed by
Vida Dehnad
2016

2. Chapter one: Preliminaries
1. The importance of testing in general
a) Educators become able to develop innovative programs if they evaluate the existing
ones.
b) Most of the time solutions of various social problems are found out in educational
settings
c) Being a good teacher is something, but being able to assess students’ ability and the
amount the students have learnt is a more important thing .
d) The union of students , teachers , educators and administrators are directed towards
desired educational objectives as a result of evaluation & testing.
e) Decision-making without relevant information achieved through measurement and
evaluation cannot yield a good result .

3. Test, Measurement , and Evaluation
• Never forget that we never measure or evaluate people ,but we do assess
and evaluate their potentials , characteristics and qualities .
• The term test is so narrow in scope ; it is a set of questions to be answered.
• In “measurement” we use different devices such as tests, rating scales,
observations , and so on to get some quantitative data for the people’s
characteristics we want to measure.
• “Measurement” is quantitative in essence . (We quantify characteristics)
• “Evaluation” is a process through which we gather information to make
professional judgments about the desirability of the scores and measures
based on a goal or objective we have in mind.
• Two students may get the same score , say 19 , but they may not be judged
equally considering multiple factors.
• “Evaluation” considers both quantitative &qualitative aspects of a situation
to move towards a goal.
•

4. The of Why testing in educational settings
• Educational testing is necessary since it affects students’ motivation
positively.
• Testing provides a sense of accomplishments; therefore, alleviates
frustration & complaints.
• Students become aware of their weaknesses & the areas of difficulty they
must address.
• Teachers can make better decision about remedial instruction .
• Schwartz& Tiedeman (1957) - cited in Farhady et al, p.5 - have also stated
similar reasons for the importance of classroom testing .

5. Teacher –made tests versus Standardized tests
Teacher made
• No uniform direction
• Selective content & sampling
• Hurried construction poor
quality
• Local classrooms as norms
• Particular objectives set by
teachers are tested
Standardized
• Specific direction/uniform
procedure
• Content is curriculum based /
subject matter based content
selected by measurement
experts after research ;
sampling is orderly
• Meticulous construction after
tryouts and revisions
• Local , regional national
norms
• Suited for interclass , school
and national comparisons

6. Thank you