APPLIED LINGUISTICS for BA Students in English
EVALUATION
Tests
An educational test is a measurement instrument which is designed to elicit a specific sample of an individual’s language behavior. (Bachman, 1990) Language tests provide the means for focusing on the specific language abilities that we are interested in. The elicited specific kinds of language behavior then can be interpreted as the evidence of the abilities which we are interested in.
Tests are often used for several pedagogical purposes.
- they may give diagnostic information to the teacher about where the learners are at the given moment to help decide what to teach next.
- tests also give information to the learners about what they know, so that they can decide what they need to learn or review. In this way tests provide students with a sense of achievement and progress in their learning and this way may motivate students to learn specific material.
- at the same time tests give tasks which themselves can provide useful practice.
- tests assessing performance provide a clear indication of reaching a certain phase in the course such as the end of a unit, or the end of the course.
- tests may also be used for purely descriptive purposes in doing research.
- sometimes tests are misused in the classroom, and are used as a means to get a noisy class to keep quiet and concentrate, which is a very bad practice.
In summary, it can be said that not all measurements are tests, not all tests are evaluative, and not all evaluation involves either measurement or tests.
