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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 RATIONALE
The importance of language testing is recognized by virtually all professionals in the field of language education. It is of special importance in educational system that is highly competitive as testing is not only an indirect stimulus to learning, but also plays a crucial role in determining the success or failure of an individual's career with direct implications for his future earning power. "Thus, testing is an important tool in educational research and for programme evaluation, and may even throw light on both the nature of language proficiency and language learning"(Lauwerys and Seanlon, 1969).
Likewise, in the teaching and learning foreign language process, testing takes a very important role. Language testing is one of the most important ways to evaluate how students acquire when they learn a foreign language. Through tests teachers know not only the success or failure of learners but also how well the learners use what they have been taught. Moreover, the learners know what they gain, what they can apply, and what they cannot. Moore (1992, p.138) states: “Evaluation is an essential tool for teachers because it gives them feedback concerning what the students have learned and indicates what should be done next in the learning process. Evaluation helps you to better understand students, their abilities, interests, attitudes and needs in order to better teach and motivate them.” Nga (1997, p.1) reaches the same conclusion: “Tests are assumed to be powerful determiners-of what happens in classroom and it is commonly claimed that they affect teaching and learning activities both directly and indirectly.”
Therefore, testing is an important part of the teaching and learning process; but has it been given adequate attention and careful study yet? Test researchers (Hughes, 1989; Brown, 1995; Read, 1982; Hai, 1999; Tuyet, 1999) in general claim that unfortunately tests have got a bad rap in recent years and not without reason. More often than not, tests are seen by learners “as dark clouds hanging over their heads, upsetting them with thunderous anxiety as they anticipate the lightning bolts of questions they do not know and worst of all a flood of disappointment if they do not make the grade” (Brown, 1994a: p.373). Hughes (1989, p.1) makes another comment on recent language testing: “It cannot be denied that a great deal of language testing is of very poor quality. Too often language tests have a harmful effect on teaching and learning and too often they fail to measure accurately whatevaer it is they are intended to measure.” This coupled with the fact that teachers frequently lack formal training in educational measurement techniques and they tend to be alienated from the testing process. They regard it as a necessary evil, an intrusion on their regular instructional activities.
At present, English tests at Son La Teachers’ Training College (STTC) have the following characteristics:
- It has not been given appropriate attention and careful study
- Its role in teaching and learning has not been fully recognized.
- Almost language teachers think that teachers should be responsible for making tests because testing is one part of teaching and learning activities that students have to pass.
- There has been a tendency using commercial (ready-made) tests rather than teacher self-made tests since commercial tests are very convenient and do not take much time to construct. Thus these selected tests may not be relevant to the objectives of the course.
- Test content is sometimes found to be unrelated to the objectives of the course and very often many test items in some tests have not been dealt with classes.
- Students have complained that there is still a big gap between what is taught and what is tested. An instance for this would be the case when some tests designed for pre-intermediate level are given to students of elementary level. They are so difficult that only few students can accomplish. Therefore, such tests are not valid and reliable.
- Using tests exclusively for grading, there is no feedback about the tests.
- There has been no discarding of bad tests or bad items. Some items are found to be so difficult that few testees could do whereas there are test items, which are so easy that all testees can obtain the correct answers. Such items should be discarded or replaced.
- Moreover, due to the fact that the writing and reading comprehension tests at the university are totally designed with multiple choice techniques so students can easily cheat by asking and copying answers from their classmates.
- Apart from those carefully designed tests, some others are still of low and poor quality and these do not accurately measure the students' real ability. Perhaps the test writer only pays attention to the fulfillment of his/her duty, which is to give tests, rather than to the effectiveness of the tests. Those tests often fail to measure accurately whatever they are intended to measure.
- Finally, the last testing problem at STTC is that some of the tests may lack reliability because they are not pre-tested anywhere else for the sake of confidentiality. Truly, for the sake of "confidentiality" test designers are often informed to write tests at short notice, just some time before it is administered. In such circumstances who can say for sure that the required standards, criteria will be met by the test writers?
Therefore, a well-design test is necessary for every language level especially for college level since it is the elementary level, which aims at acquiring survival English and diagnosing students’ aptitudes in the course and what they have to study to improve both their knowledge and skills. In this minor thesis, the author bases herself on the knowledge of testing and testing situation to propose a sample achievement test for the first year students who have been taught the student’s book New Headway English Course (elementary level) from unit 1 to unit 8.
1.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of the study focuses on the existing situations at Son La Teacher’s Training College. I design a sample test only on writing and reading skills focusing on grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing skills. The study provides investigated and analyzed data of the achievement test for the first-year non-English major students. Moreover, the teachers’ and students’ comments on the test and their suggestion for its improvement will be presented in this thesis.
1.3 AIMS OF THE STUDY
The aim of the study is to report a research examining the current testing situations and language tests for non-English majors at STTC with great emphasis on analyzing the result of the sample test, the teachers’ and students’ comments on the test and their suggestion for its improvement. The specific aims of the study are:
1. To investigate the STTC teachers’ evaluation and students’ evaluation of the sample test concerning its content, time allowance and its format.
2. To investigate the teachers’ suggestions and students’ suggestions for improving testing situations and language tests at STTC.
3. To propose an achievement test construction for the first-year students at STTC and a sample test will be designed based on the proposed test construction.
4. To offer some practical recommendations for improving of testing situation at STTC.
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