DELTA - Terminology - Tests

The positive or negative effect testing has on classroom teaching.

e.g. teaching test strategies for the IELTS test

• Testing always has a negative effect on classroom teaching
• Backwash

• Testing always has a positive effect on classroom teaching
• It can have both positive and negative effects, depending on how it is implemented and used.

A type of gap-filling test/task in which the second half of certain words are deleted.

• C- Test

• Empty test
• Open test
• Blank test

A test where words from a text have been deleted at regular intervals (originally every 7th word) and Ss have to fill in the blanks.

• Cloze test
• Empty test
• Open test
• Blank test

Refers to a test testing what it is supposed to test. Helps avoid testing what is easy to test rather than what is important to test.

e.g. Ss have to produce grammar structures taught during the course

• Invalid test
• Accurate test
• Appropriate test
• Content Validity test

A test that serves as a tool to inform instructional planning and allows educators to tailor their teaching strategies to address the unique needs of each learner.

E.g. A placement test assessing module suitability at a language learning centre.

• Formative assessment
• Summative assessment
• Standardized test
• Diagnostic assessment

A test which uses speaking tasks to measure speaking ability or writing tasks to measure writing ability. It might employ tasks which replicate real-life activities.

e.g. role-playing a job interview; writing a letter of complaint

• Multiple choice assessment
• Fill in the blank assessment
• Direct Assessment

• True or false assessment

A test which assesses knowledge of individual language items

e.g. past simple irregular verbs

• Cooking proficiency test
• Discrete Item Test

• Math proficiency test
• Driving proficiency test

Refers to the extent to which a test appears to candidates/teachers/employers to be testing what it says it is testing.

e.g. Ss may feel a familiar multiple choice task has more face validity than a cloze test

• Internal validity
• Content validity
• Construct validity
• Face validity

A test administered during a course to determine the progress made in specific areas taught. Can highlight what areas need to be worked on

• Football
• Banana
• Formative test

• Sunshine

A test which attempts to measure the abilities underlying a language skill, rather than testing performance of the skill itself.

e.g. testing writing ability by Ss marking structures used incorrectly in a test

• reading test
• indirect test

• listening test
• vocabulary test