Achieving Beneficial Backwash

The first principle to achieve beneficial backwash is to test the abilities whose development you want to encourage, that means that...

• You should find a good indirect test that measures students' speaking skills.

• If you want to encourage oral ability, then test oral ability.

• You should test in the most practical way, taking into account costs and subjectivity.

• If you want to encourage oral ability, then test oral comprehension

What happens if the content of a test is highly predictable?

• The teaching and learning are likely to concentrate on what can be predicted

• The teaching and learning are likely to concentrate on the most difficult parts of the test

• The teaching and learning are likely to concentrate on the most enjoyable bits.

• The teaching and learning are likely to concentrate on what makes learners uncomfortable

The fact that the only two kinds of written tasks offered in the Academic version of the IELTS are a 1. description/interpretation of a graph and 2. an essay means that...

• Most people will prepare by doing all kinds of writing to ensure they are ready for the test.

• Most people will prepare by doing fiction and nonfiction writing to ensure they are ready for the test.

• Most people will limit their preparation to those specific types of tasks.

• . Most people will end up hating writing and won't try to do any kind of preparation.

What is a possible consequence of testing indirectly?

• Students will feel extremely motivated and will do their best in their tests.

• Students will feel they are wasting their time in class because they don't have to work on projects.

• Students won't have the incentive to do any kind of studying or practice before tests.

• Students won't have the incentive to practise in the way that we want them to.

A criterion-referenced test is a test in which...

• Most people pass because it is extremely easy and it measures basic contents.

• students who pass have completed the great majority of the tasks successfully.

• Most people fail because the idea is to make it as tough as possible to ensure its reliability.

• Most people are expected to succeed because they should have been provided with the training.

According to the previous information regarding criterion-referenced tests, we can say the SABER-pro exam is not this kind of test because...

• A passing grade means you will be extremely successful in university and you won't need to study hard.

• A failing grade won't mean a thing because most people in Colombia don't need any academic skills.

• A passing grade on this test means nothing. If you don't have enough dough you won't go to university.

• A passing grade does not necessarily mean you completed most tasks successfully. It's frustrating!

According to this book's chapter, Achievement tests should be based on...

• what the instructor believes students should master by the end of the course.

• the contents of the course. That way they will provide a truer picture of what has been achieved.

• the objectives of the course. That way they will provide a truer picture of what has been achieved.

• the contents of a coursebook. That way they will provide a truer picture of what has been achieved.

An additional reason for making sure that students and teachers know and understand how a test works is...

• that most students will make the test more valid by answering in the way they are expected

• that supplying information of this kind is to increase test reliability.

• that they will feel like studying harder for the test and they will care about being tested.

• that they won't feel the need to work. That way there will a very meager chance of losing validity.

What is the meaning of "practicality" in a test?

• that a test should be automatically scored, so the teacher can dedicate more time to teaching.

• that a test should be easy and cheap to construct, administer, score, and interpret.

• that a test should be easy to read and with a large font size, so people with visual problems can take it.

• that a test should comply with the principles of beneficial backwash at all costs.

To conclude this chapter, Hughes tells us that we have to count the cost. What does he mean by this?

• We should make sure tests measure exactly what they are supposed to measure to avoid extra costs.

• We should consider everything to decide that we cannot afford to include beneficial backwash testing.

• We should make sure tests are cheap enough to make and administer, schools have no money.

• We should put everything in a balance to decide that it is better to test badly than not testing, at all.