Test Techniques

Direct versus Indirect Testing

• Direct testing
• When it requires the candidate to perform precisely the
skill that the test wishes to measure.
• Easier to carry out when it is intended to measure the
productive skills of speaking and writing.
• Has a number of attractions:
1. Clear assessment
2. Productive skills (assessment and interpretation)
3. Backwash effect
• Indirect testing

• Attempts to measure the abilities that underlie the skills

in which the test is interested.
• Contains underlined items which the student needs to
identify as erroneous or inappropriate in formal
standard English
• Example: Lando’s proposed method of testing
pronunciation ability by a paper and pencil test in which
the student has to identify pairs of words which rhyme
with each other.
 Some tests are referred to as semi – direct.

Examples:
Speaking tests where candidates respond to tape-
recorded stimuli, with their own responses being
recorded and later scored.
 DISCRETE POINT VERSUS
INTEGRATIVE TESTING
• (a) Discrete
– a completely discrete – point item would test
simply one point or objective such as testing for the
meaning of a word in isolation.
Example:
Choose the correct meaning of the word paralysis.

(A)Inability to move
(B) State of unconscious
(C) State of shock
(D)Being in pain
• Discrete point testing

• Refers to the testing of one element at a time, item

by item. This might take the form of series of items

• For example:
• Each testing a particular grammatical structure
Integrative testing
• Requires the candidate to combine many language
elements in the completion of a task.

• This might involve writing a composition, making

notes while listening to a lecture, taking a dictation, or
completing a cloze passage.
• This distinction is not unrelated to that between
indirect and direct testing:

• discrete point tests almost always be indirect;

• integrative tend to be direct. However, some
integrative testing methods, such as the cloze
procedure, are indirect.
• Diagnostic tests of grammar is discrete
• Integrative test
• Refers to an integrative item that would test more
than one point or objective at a time.
(e.g., comprehension of words, and ability to use
them correctly in context).

Example:
Demonstrate your comprehension of the
following words by using them together in a written
paragraph: “paralysis,” “accident,” and “football.”
• Integrative item is really more a procedure than an
item, as in the case of a free composition, which could
test a number of objectives;

Example:
Use of appropriate vocabulary
Use of sentence level discourse
Organization
Statement of thesis and supporting
evidence
• For example:

Write a one- page essay describing three sports

and the relative likelihood of being injured while
playing them competitively.
 Norm – referenced versus
Criterion-referenced
Testing
Two basic types of language test:

1. Norm – referenced
2. Criterion – referenced
• Norm-referenced test
Students’ scores are interpreted relative to each
other in a normal distribution scheme (bell curve).

The idea is to spread the students out on a

continuum of knowledge/ ability in order to facilitate
proficiency and placement decisions.
• Criterion-referenced exams

• Measure student ability against a predetermined

standard
Ex. The learning objectives of a specific course or
unit of a course.

The interpretation of the scores is absolute and may

be representational of the amount of course material
that the student has learned
Criterion-referenced tests are by far the
most commonly used by teachers in
language courses, as they are used to
measure achievement and to diagnose
strengths and weaknesses.

It is in order to foster reflection on the

possible uses of norm-referenced tests
(NRT) and criterion-referenced tests
(CRT).
 Objective versus
Subjective Testing
The distinction is between methods of scoring.

• Objective
• No judgment is required on the part of the scorer
Ex. A multiple choice test, with the correct
responses unambiguously identified, would be a
case in point.
• Subjective
• If judgment is called

There are different degrees of subjectivity in testing.

1. The impressionistic scoring of a composition

may be considered more subjective than scoring
of short answers in response to questions on a
reading passage
 Objectivity in scoring is sought after by many
testers, not for itself, but for the greater reliability it
brings.

In general, the less subjective the scoring, the

greater agreement there will be between two different
scores ( and between the scores of one person scoring
the same test paper on different occasions).