CRITICAL BOOK REPORT

LANGUAGE TESTING

Septian Wahyu Maulana 2153321033

ENGLISH EDUCATION AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2107
Title : Language Assessment Principles and Classroom Practices

Author : H. Douglas Brown

Publisher : Pearson Education, Inc

Year : 2004

City : San Fransisco

Page : 315 Pages

 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The field of second language acquisition and pedagogy has enjoyed a half century of

academic prosperity, with exponentially increasing numbers of books, journals, articles, and

dissertations now constituting our stockpile of knowledge. Surveys of even a subdiscipline

within this growing field now require hundreds of bibliographic entries to document the state

ofthe art. In this melange of topics'and issues, assessment remains an area of'intense

fascination. What is the best way to assess learners' ability? What are the most practical

assessment instruments available? Are current standardized tests of language profiCiency

accurate and reliable? In an era of communicative language teaching, do our classroom tests

measure up to standards of authenticity and meaningfulness? How can a teacher design tests

that serve as motivating learning experiences rather than anxiety-provoking threats? All these

and many more questions now being addressed by teachers, researchers, and specialists can

be overwhelming to the novice language teacher, who is already baffled by linguistic and

psychological paradigms and by a multitude of methodological options. This book provides

the teacher trainee with a clear, reader-friendly presentation of the essential foundation stones

of language assessment,- withample practical examples to illustrate their application in

language classrooms. It is a book that Simplifies the issues without oversimplifying. It doesn't

dodge complex questions, and it treats them in ways that classroom teachers can comprehend.

Readers do not have to become testing experts to understand and apply the concepts in this

book, nor do they have to become statisticians adept in manipulating mathematical equations

and advanced calculus.

 CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

TESTING, ASSESSING AND TEACHING

A test, in simple terms, is a method of measuring a person ~ ability, know/edge, or

performance in a given domain. Let's look at the components of this defmition. A test is first
a method. It is an instrument-a set of techniques, procedures, or items that requires
performance on the part of the test-taker. To qualify as a test, the method must be explicit and
structured: multiple-choice questions with prescribed correct answers; a writing prompt with ;
scoring rubric; an oral interview based on a que; tion script and a checklist of expected
responses to be filled in by the administrator. Second, a test must measure. Some tests
measure general ability, while others focus on very specific competencies or objectives. a test
measures an individual's ability, knowledge, or performance. Testers need to understand who
the test-takers are. A test measures performance, but the results imply the test-taker's ability,
or, to\ use a concept common in the field of linguistics, competence. Most language tests
measure one's ability to perform language, that is, to speak, write, read, or listen to a subset of
language. Finally, a test measures a given domain. In the case of a proficiency test, even
though the actual performance on the test involves only a sampling of skills, that domain is
overall proficiency in a language-general competence in all skills of a language.

Assessment, on the other hand, is an ongoing process that encompasses a much wider
domain. Whenever a student responds to a question, offers a conunent, or tries out a new
word or structure, the teacher subconsciously makes an assessment of the student'S
performance. Tests, then, are subset –of assessment; they are certainly not the only form of
assessment that a teacher can make. Tests can be useful devices, but they are only one among
many procedures and tasks that teachers can ultimately use to assess students.

Informal assessment can take a number of forms, starting with incidental, unplanned
comments and responses, along with coaching and other impromptu feedback to the student.
Examples include saying "Nice job!" "Good work!" "Did you say can or can't?". formal
assessments are exercises or procedures specifically designed to tap into a storehouse ofskills
and knowledge. They are systematic, planned sampling techniques constructed to give
teacher and student an appraisal of student ackievement. To extend the tennis analogy, formal
assessments are the tournament games that occur periodically in the course of a regimen of
practice.

Two functions are commonly identified in the literature: formative and summative
assessment. Most of our classroom assessment is formative assessment: evaluating students
in the process of "forming" their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to
continue that growth process. The key to such formation is the delivery (by the teacher) and
internalization (by the student) of appropriate feedback on· performance, with an eye toward
the future continuation (or formation) of learning. Summative assessment aims to measure,
or summarize, what a student has grasped, and typically occurs at the end of a course or unit
of instruction. A summation of what a student has leamedimplies looking back and taking
stock of how well that student has accomplished objectives, but does not necessarily point the
way to future progress. Final exams in a course and general proficiency exams' are examples
of summative assessment.

In norm-referenced tests, each test-taker's score is interpreted in relation to a mean (average

score), median (middle score), standard t-/ deviation (extent of variance in scores),and/or
percentile rank. The purpose'in such tests is to place test-takers along a mathematical
continuum in rank order. Scores are usually reported back to the test-taker in the form of a
numerical score (for example, 230 out of 300) and a percentile rank (such as 84 percent,
which means that the test-taker's score was higher than 84 percent of the, total number of
testtakers, but lower than 16 percent in that administration). Criterion-referenced tests, on
the other hand, are designed to give test-takers. feedback" usually in, the form of grades, on
specific course or lesson objectives. Classroom tests involving the students in only one class,
and connected to a curriculum, are typical ofcriterion-referenced testing.

Discrete-point tests are constructed on the assumption that . language can be broken down
into its component parts and that those parts can be tested successfully. These components
are the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and various--unitsoflanguage
(discrete points) of phonology/ graphology, morphology, lexicon, syntax, and discourse.
What does an integrative test look like? Two types of tests have historically been claimed to
be example of integrative tests: cloze tests and dictations. A cloze test is a reading passage
(perhaps 150 to 300 words) in which roughly every sixth or seventh word has been deleted;
the test-taker is required to supply words that fit into those blanks. Dictation is a familiar
language-teaching technique that evolved into a testing technique. Essentially, learners listen
to a passage of 100 to 150 words read aloud by an administrator (or audiotape) and write
what they hear, using correct spelling.

Proponents of integrative test methods soon centered their arguments on what became know
as the unitary trait hypothesis, which suggested an "indivisible" view of language
profiCiency: that vocabulary, grammar, phonology, the "four skills," and other discrete points
of language could not be disentangled from each other in language performance.

• spatial intelligence (the ability to find your way around an environment, to form mental
images of reality)
• musical intelligence (the ability to perceive and create pitch and rhythmic patterns)
• bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (fine motor· movement, athletic prowess)
• interpersonal intelligence (the ability to understand others and how they feel, and to interact
effectively with them)
• intrapersonal intelligence (the ability to understand oneself and to develop a sense of self-
identity)

A specific type of computer·based test, a computer-adaptive test, has been available for many
years but has recently gained momentum. In a computer-adaptive test (CAn, each test-taker
receives a set of questions that meet the test specifications and that are generally appropriate
for his or her performance level. The CAT starts with questions of moderate difficulty.
Computer-based testing, with or without CAT technology, offers these advantages:

• classroom.;based testing
• self-directed testh"1g on various aspects of a language (vocabulary, grammar, discourse,
one or all of the four skills, etc.)
• practice for upcoming high-stakes standardized tests
• some individualization, in the case of CATs
• large-scale standardized tests that can be administered easily to thousands of test-takers at
many different stations, then scored electronically for rapid reporting of results

Of course, some disadvantages are present in our current predilection for computerizing
testing. Among them:

• Lack of security and the possibility of cheating are inherent in classroombased,

unsupervised computerized tests.
• Occasional "home-grown" quizzes that appear on unofficial websites. may be mistaken for
validated assessments.
• The multiple-choice format preferred for most computer-based tests contains the usual
potential for flawed item design.
• Open-ended responses are less likely to appear because of the ·need for human scorers, with
all the attendant issues of cost, reliability, and turn around time.
• The human interactive elenlent (especially in oral production) is absent.
 CHAPTER III
STRENGTHNESS AND WEAKNESSES

This chapter has many strong points that we need to noticed because it explains meticulously
about a tons of tests with its featured system and each of their definition. It also includes
exercises at the end of the chapter to evaluate our skill in understanding the discussions. It
puts table in some of the discussions to facilitate the readers so that it could make it easier for
them to comprehend the content. There are also some crucial words being bolded to notify
the readers so that they won’t miss those important points in the chapter. The chapter also
includes some of the experts’ thought or definition from numerous sources to elaborate the
discussions and to raise the quality of the explanation. There is also the foot note below some
pages to cited the definition from many sources so practically the book itself used APA
citation standard.

While there is only a slight or small flaw in it and that is how the chapter was not really
structured nicely because there are many different subject in the same paragraph. It would be
wiser if the author wrote it in a different section or paragraph so that it does not confused the
readers.
 CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION & SUGGESTION

This book is designed to offer a comprehensive survey of essential principles and tools for

second language assessment. It has been used in pilot forms for teacher training courses in

teacher certification and in Master ofArts in TESOL programs. As the third in a trilogy of

teacher education textbooks, it is designed to follow my other two books, Principles of

Language Learning and Teaching (Fourth Edition, Pearson Education, 2000) and Teaching

by Principles (Second Edition, Pearson Education, 2001). References to those two books are

sprinkled throughout the current book. In keeping with the tone set in the previous two books,

this one features uncomplicated prose and a systematic, spiraling organization. Concepts are

introduced with a maximum of practical exemplification and a minimum of weighty

definition. Supportive research is acknowledged and succinctly explained without burdening

the reader with ponderous debate over minutiae. The testing discipline sometimes possesses

an aura of sanctity that can cause teachers to feel inadequate as they approach the task of

mastering principles and designing effective instruments. Some testing manuals, with their

heavy emphasis on jargon and mathematical equations, don't help to dissipate that mystique.

By the end of Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices, readers will have

gained access to this not-so-frightening field. They will have a working knowledge of a

number of useful. fundamental principles of assessment and will have applied those

principles to practical classroom·· contexts. They will have acquired a* storehouse of useful,

comprehensible tools for evaluating and designing practical,effective assessment techniques

for their classrooms.

As you read this book, I hope you will do so with an appreciation for the place of testing in

assessment, and with a sense of the interconnection of assessment and teaching. Assessment

is an integral part of the teaching-learning cycle. In an interactive, communicative

curriculum, assessment is almost constant. Tests, which are a subset of assessment, can

provide authenticity, motivation, and feedback to the learner. Tests are essential components

of a successful curriculum and one of several partners in the learning process.