Integration

Validity of Language Assessment

Key Points: This article details the complexities that come with the validation of language tests. To validate a test means to determine whether or not the test can evaluate what the it is suppose to evaluate. That is, is the test measuring what the test maker intended to measure. According to this reading the problem with validating tests is that the measurements for validation need to be reviewed. The current definition of validation is put under the microscope in this article. This article is a call out to test makers to reevaluate the ways in which they validate tests. Criteria to look at when evaluating the validity of a test include: the consequences of the test and comparison of the test to other tests, and the language construct the test is suppose to measure.

My interaction with the reading:

1. Although this article was difficult for me to understand, it did make me consider the unique difficulties of language testing. For example, a language test may actually be testing a learner's ability to take a test. A test may have it's own discourse and demonstrating proficiency in that discourse may not represent proficiency in the target language.
2. In my own experience making tests I found it difficult to illicit a demonstration of a language skill. I had to walk a fine line between giving the answer away by being too specific or make the answer too difficult by being too vague.
3. I have a feeling that the term 'validity' means something in the testing world that I don't fully understand because this is my first time reading about tests. I understand the word but I have a feeling that the word is used to mean something specific in the testing world. Like it is testing jargon.

Fairness and Justice for All

Key Points: As the title suggests, this article is about fairness in testing. We learn how tests can be unfair. For example, tests administered on computer are unfair to students in locations that do not have computers. This article states that relatively little research has been done to determine how to make fair tests and that more research is necessary if test makers are to make fair tests. We learn that fair tests are important to society in that unfair tests affect college admissions and jobs. Tests in the past have been judged to be racist.

My interaction with the reading:

1. I'm a little confused by the use of the term 'construct' as it pertains to testing.
2. I learned a new term, wash back, which describes the phenomenon in which test influence how teachers teach. I think another way to say this, “teaching to the test.” I think wash back is an important issue in education. Especially in Korea.
3. I had never thought of tests as being unfair. I thought as long as every student reachieved the same test than it was a fair test. In this article we learn that this is not true and that making a fair test is not a simple matter.