Language assessment – Session 3

• Aligning assessment with course learning outcomes

• Developing test specifications for language
assessment

Course instructor: Nguyen Thi Hong Tham (PhD)

Email: ntham2015@gmail.com
Reading
• Coombe et al. (Chapters 6+7+9)
• Brown and Abeywickrama (2010) Chapter 3
• Brown (2004) Chapter 2, pp. 42-65.
 Group discussion (15 minutes)
Tick the assessment types you use/will use in your own course and explain why you use
them. Share your ideas with your group members.

Assessment type I use/ will use Reason

1.Traditional exam
2. Take-home exam
3. Open-book exam
4. Oral exam
5. Multiple-choice
6. In-class test/quiz
7. Essay
8. Review
9. Report
10. presentation
 Assessment type I use/will use Reason
11. Portfolio of work
12. Project
13. Video/Media production

14. Poster presentation

15. Conference
16. Reflective essay
17. Journal/Diary
18. Discussion board/Blog

19. Fieldwork
21. Self-assessment
22. Peer-assessment
23. Online assessment tasks
24. Other

Adapted from Chalmers’s (2017) lecture notes

Constructive alignment
(Biggs and Tangs 2011)

Desired Teaching
learning and Assessment
learning tasks
outcomes
activities
Aligning assessment with learning outcomes

https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/printpdf/531
Bloom’s taxonomy
http://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/blooms-taxonomy/249-blooms-taxonomy-verbs-for-critical-thinking
 Example: Course Learning Outcomes
ESL 111B Integrated Skills II (beginning – low level English)
After successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. GRAMMAR: identify the present continuous, simple past, future going to and
will, and present perfect tenses, possession, direct and indirect objects, linking
verbs, quantifiers, comparatives, superlatives, more advanced modals, and
conditionals.
2. VOCABULARY: match simple definitions to beginning-low level vocabulary words
from more familiar themes (i.e. nationalities, occupations, heath, sport,
technology).
3. LISTENING: recognize main ideas and details from beginning-low level listening
passages.
4. SPEAKING/PRONUNCIATION:
- cite beginning-low level vocabulary words and sounds with correct intonation,
- construct basic yes/no and open-ended questions, and
- state appropriate oral responses to simple and complex questions.
5. READING/WRITING:
- identify grammar and content from beginning-low level reading passages and
- construct sentences in writing using beginning-low level grammar and
vocabulary.
http://sites.csn.edu/il/interactive/guidetoeslcourses.pdf
Learning outcomes and the corresponding assessment methods

http://scu.edu.au/teachinglearning/index.php/dds?cat_id=1681#cat1681
Assessment development process

(Saville 2003)
SOME PRACTICAL STEPS TO TEST CONSTRUCTION
Brown and Abeywickrama (2010) Chapter 3,
Brown 2004: 70-78
 SOME PRACTICAL STEPS TO TEST CONSTRUCTION

1. Assessing Clear, Unambiguous Objectives

2. Drawing up Test Specifications
3. Devising Test Tasks
4. Designing test items
 1. Assessing clear, unambiguous
objectives

➢Teachers need to know as specifically as possible what it is

they want to test their students.
➢They should examine the objectives for the unit they
are testing.
➢Each objective is stated in terms of the performance elicited
and the target linguistic domain. The first task in designing a
test is to determine appropriate objectives.
2. DRAWING UP TEST SPECIFICATIONS

A test's specifications provide the official

statement what the test tests and how it tests
it. It can be a simple and practical outline of
the test.
Test specification will simply comprise:
a.A broad outline of the test.
b.What skills you will test
c. What the items will look like
 Informal, classroom-oriented specifications
show:

1. The topics (objectives) you will cover,

2. The implied elicitation and response formats
for items,
3. The number of items in each section, and
4. The time to be allocated for each
Example: Test specifications for a low-intermediate
integrated-skills course (Brown 2004: 52)
Aligning assessment with course learning outcomes

Course learning outcome Assessment task

1. Assessment 2. Assessment 3. Assessment
task 1 task 2 task 3
1. Course learning outcome 1

2. Course learning outcome 2

3. Course learning outcome 3

4. Course learning outcome 4

5. Course learning outcome 5

 Aligning assessment with course learning outcomes: An example
Course learning outcome Assessment task
After successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Writing 2. Group 3. Final
portfolio presentation test
1. GRAMMAR 1. apply certain grammatical structures at the pre- X X X
intermediate level (e.g. present and past perfect,
unreal conditionals, adjective and adverbial clauses).
2. VOCABULARY 2. define pre-intermediate level vocabulary words X X X
from less familiar themes (e.g. banking, conservation,
art, college, space).
3. LISTENING 3. recognize main ideas and details from pre- X X
intermediate level listening passages.
4. SPEAKING + 4.1 cite pre-intermediate level content and function X
PRONUNCIATION
words and sounds with correct intonation (e.g….).
4.2 create long conversations appropriate for the pre- X
intermediate level (e.g…..)
5. READING + 5.1 identify main ideas and details from the pre- X X
WRITING
intermediate level reading passages.
5.2 construct pieces of writing, using the pre- X
intermediate level grammar and vocabulary (e.g….)
6. GENERIC 6.1 develop team-working skills X X
SKILLS
6.2 foster problem-solving skills X X
Specifications of the assessment tasks
Assessment task Weighting Format Objective Component and
time
 Specifications of the assessment tasks: An example
Assessment Weighting Format objective Component and time
task

1. Writing 30% Written Course • 1 job application letter: 15%

portfolio learning (first draft: week 3, peer feedback: week 4)
outcomes • 1 narrative paragraph of a past event: 15%
1+2+5+6 (first draft: week 6, peer feedback: week 7)
2. Group 20% Oral Course Two group presentations (10% each):
presentation learning Each group takes turn to present a topic of their
outcomes choice for 20 minutes (weeks 3, 6, and 9, two or
1+2+3 +4+6 three groups/week).
3. Final test 50% Written Course Time: 60 minutes
learning -Part 1: Listening comprehension: 25% (30
outcomes minutes)
1+2+3+5.1 • two conversations: 5 true/false items + 10
multiple choice items
• one passage: one open-cloze paragraph with 10
gaps + 5 open-ended questions.
-Part 2: Reading comprehension: 25% (30 minutes)
• passage 1: 5 matching + 5 true/false items+ 5
open-ended questions
• passage 2: 10 multiple choice items (with 4
choices).
Group discussion (20 minutes)

Group project portfolio:

• You will work in groups to write:

1. the learning outcomes, and assessment tasks that will allow
you to assess the learning outcomes.
2. The specifications for the assessment tasks

• Then, each group will present these two products for five
minutes to the class.