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which seems to have been found is a teacher’s rating. An
experienced teacher who knows his class well can rank pupils
in order of merit with considerable reliability and accuracy.
Thus tests whose results correlate well with teacher ratings
can be regarded as empirically valid, and the correspondence
between the two measures can be expressed as a coefficient
of validity. Testing specialists like such coefficients to have a
value higher than 0.7—perfect correlation would give a
coefficient of 1.0.
It is clear of course that empirical validity is unlikely to be
achieved unless a test is constructed in accordance with some
respectable theory of language. It is also unlikely to be
achieved unless the test adequately samples the knowledge
and activities which are entailed by showing that one knows
a language. However, a theoretical base and adequate
sampling do not guarantee empirical validity—to gain that,
the test must be set against some external criterion.
There is one final kind of validity which is sometimes
discussed in the literature on assessment. This is ‘face
validity’. This is a matter of how the test appears to the
pupils being tested, to teachers, administrators and so on. If
the form or content of a test appears foolish or irrelevant or
inconsequential, then users of the test will be suspicious of it;
those in authority will be unlikely to adopt it, pupils may be
poorly motivated by it. Thus test makers must ensure that a
test not only tests what it is supposed to test, reliably and
accurately but that it looks as though that is what it does.
A final characteristic of a good language test is
practicability. By this is meant the extent to which the test is
readily usable by teachers with limited time and resources at
their disposal. Such factors as the cost of the test booklets,
the amount of time and manpower needed to prepare,
administer, invigilate, mark and interpret the test, the
requirements for special equipment and so on must all be
taken into account. For example a standardised test which
employs re-usable test booklets with separate answer sheets
is likely to be much cheaper to run than one which uses
consumable test booklets. Tests which take relatively little
time to work and process are likely to be preferred to those
which take a lot of time, those which can be given to many
pupils simultaneously are usually more practicable than
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those which require individual administration. Simple paper
and pencil tests may well be preferred to those which require
elaborate audio- or video-recording equipment. Up-to-date
tests whose cultural content is unexceptional are evidently
better than those which are out of date and contain culturally
inappropriate or objectionable material, those with clear
instruction manuals are better than those with obscure
manuals, and so on. The test maker needs to bear all such
factors in mind, but he should also bear in mind that the
testing of some kinds of activity relevant to some dimensions
of ‘knowing a language’ may require the use of elaborate
equipment or individualised methods and a proper balance
must be struck.
In the classroom the teacher finds himself faced with
having to assess the progress of his pupils, to judge their
suitability for one class or another and so on. He must decide
out of the whole complex of considerations which has been
outlined above what kind of assessment he wishes to make,
of what aspects of his pupils learning, with what kind of
reliability and what kind of validity. Once those decisions are
made he can go ahead with devising his instrument for
making the assessment. For help with that he will find J.B.
Heaton’s Writing English Language Tests a useful book
along with the book by Lado mentioned earlier, and that by
Rebecca Valette listed below.
The last matters to which it would seem appropriate to
give some attention here concern standardised English
language tests, and the public examinations systems.
A number of standardised tests exist. Among these the
Davis test has been widely used. More recently Elizabeth
Ingram has published English Language Battery but the
American tests in this area seem to be more readily available.
Among the best known of these are Robert Lado’s English
Language Test for Foreign Students which developed into the
Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency and the
TOEFL, Educational Testing Service, Test of English as a
Foreign Language. Further information and discussion of such
tests will be found in The Seventh Mental Measurements
Yearbook, ed. O.Bures.
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