VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
  

DƯƠNG THỊ HÒA

“DESIGNING AN ENGLISH ORAL ACHIEVEMENT TEST FOR
SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT BAC NINH PHYSICAL
EDUCATION AND SPORTS UNIVERSITY”
(THIẾT KẾ BÀI THI VẤN ĐÁP TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM
THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THỂ DỤC THỂ THAO BẮC NINH) MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: English Teaching Methodology
CODE: 601410
HÀ NỘI - 2011 v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP………………………………………………… I
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………… . . iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………… ……… … v

PART A. INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study………………………………………………………… …… 1
2. Aims of the study…………………………… …………………………… …… 2
3. Research questions……………………………… ……………………………… …. 3
4. Scope of the study ………………………………………………………………… … 3
5. Methodology…………………………………………………………………… 3
6. Design of the study…………………………………………………………………… 3

PART B. DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1. Literature review
1.1. Language testing………………………………………………………………… … 4
1.2. The role of testing……………………………………………………………… …. .5

2.2.2. The students…… …………………………………………………… 16

2.3.Overview the material used for second year students at BAC NINH UPES 17

2.4. Current testing situation at BAC NINH UPES……………………… ……… 19

2.5. Results and discussions
2.5.1 The subjects……………………………………………………………… 20
2.5.2 Instruments for collecting data………………………………………………21
2.5.3 Analysis of the collected data…………… ……………………… … … …21
2.5.3.1 Teachers’ survey questionnaire and interview … …… … 21
2.5.3.2 Students’survey questionnaire ……… …… … … … 22
2.5.4. Results……………………………………………… …… … .23

CHAPTER3. Towards designing an oral achievement
test for second year students at BAC NINH UPES 3.1. Suggestions for improvement of the existing English oral achievement test… … 24
3.1.1. Small talk…………………………………………………………… … 25
3.1.2. Picture………………………………………………………………… . 26
3.1.3. Oral interview…………………………………………………………… . 27

3.2. Proposed construction for an oral test for second year students at BAC NINH UPES
3.2.1. Objectives……………………………………………………………… … 28
3.2.2. Table of specifications …………………………… ………………… … 28
3.3.2.1. Test skills……………………………………………………… …… 29
3.3.2.2 Test content……………………………………… ………………… 29
3.3.2.3 Test format………………………………………… ……………… … 29
3.3.2.4. Rubrics………………………………………………………………… 29


indirectly.
No one can deny the fact that testing is an important part in teaching and learning
process, but has it been paid enough attention yet? Having taught English for students at
Bac Ninh University of Physical education and sports for nearly 16 years, author of this
study has designed tests of all four language skills, especially the speaking skills. She has 2 also administered and marked these tests. Her teaching experience shows that there still
remain some problems that need to be solved such as the test content, the gap between what
is tested and what is taught, the reuse of tests from years to years, from class to class. As a
result, tests may lack of validity and realibility.
Since 2010 at Bac Ninh UPES students have been required to do an oral
achievement test at the end of each semester. Having good English result in the first year
enables them to have better result in their specialty. Knowing the importance of speaking
skill for students at UPES, teachers in the English group regard oral achievement test as a
means to reinforce students’ knowledge and motivate their learning.
On the ground of the problem already mentioned, the author has decided to
choose Designing an English Oral Achievement Test for Second Year students at Bac
Ninh Physical Education and Sports University (Bac Ninh UPES) in an attemp to solve
the testing problems here and share her testing experience with her colleages and those who
are concerned with this area.
2. Aims of the study
The study aims at examining the current testing situation and English tests at Bac
Ninh UPES towards designing an English oral achievement test for second year students.
With the above- mentioned rationale, the specific aims of the study are:
+ Evaluating the current situation of English oral test in terms of its content, time
allowance and marking scales.

The study consists of three parts and each one presents a set of related issues:
- The first part provides basic information such as rationale, aims, design, scope and
methodology of the study.
- The second part, which is the main part, is sub divided into three chapters:
+ The first chapter “ Literature review”, which is the most theoretical one, looks at the
background knowledge on language testing.
+ The second chapter which discusses on methodology, presents the deep analysis of the
setting including the questionnaires, direct interviews, and analysis of students’ needs for a
new test. It also describes data collection instruments, data collection procedure and data
analysis.
+ The third chapter is the most important one which touches upon the designing an
English oral achievement test for second year students at Bac Ninh UPES based on the
above – mentioned theoretical and practical study.
- And the final part, the author shed the mantle of reviewing the study and suggesting
further research.
4 Part B. Development
Chapter 1. Literature review
Some literature review about language testing, the role of testing, achievement test
and some criteria of a good test are presented in this chapter.
1.1 Language testing
It can be said that language tests are valuable tools for providing information

on the specific assure of interest.
Another interesting definition of testing is provided by Ibe (1981: 1) as follow:
A sample of behavior under controlled of specified conditions and aimed towards
providing a basis for performing judgement.
The term a sample of behavior used here is rather broad and it means something
else rather than the traditional types of papers and pencils. Read (1983) shares the same
idea with Ibe in the sense that a sample of behaviors suggests language testing ceirtainly
includes listening and speaking skills as well as reading and writing ones.
However, Heaton (1988:5) looks at testing in a different way. In his opinion, tests are as a
means of assessing the students’ performance and to motivate the students. He looks at tests
with positive eyes as many students are eager to take at the end of the semester to know
how much knowledge they have. One important thing is that he points out the relationship
between testing and teaching.
In short, from the above descriptions, testing is an effective means of measuring and
assessing students’ language knowledge and skill. It is of great use to both language
teaching and learning.
1.2 The role of testing
Unlike tests of other abilities or areas of knowledge where we frequently use
language in the process of measuring something else, in language tests, we use language as
a measurement of language ability in second language acquisition. Similarly, language tests
can be valuable sources of information about the effectiveness of learning and teaching
1.2.1 Testing and teaching
A large number of examination and tests in the past tended to separate testing from
teaching. Heaton (1988: 5 ) emphasizes that teaching and testing in some ways are so
interwoven and independent that is very difficult to tease apart.” Both testing and teaching
are so closely interrelated that it is virtually impossible to work in either field without being
constantly concerned with the others”. However, thanks to the steady change in the
approaches to language teaching with a remarkable shift of emphasis from dicrete - point
items to intergrative and communicative tests, testing, teaching and learning become more
and more interrelated.

Having learned something about the areas of strength and weakness, students have
an opportunity to see how well they are able to perform what they have learned in the test.
In Read’s opinion, a test is said to be able to help both students and teachers classify what
learners really need to know. Furthermore, it also helps students identify precise areas of
weakness, which require further study or practice. Tests also enable teachers to as certain
which parts of the language programs have been found difficulty by the class. In this way, 7 teachers can evaluate the effectiveness of the syllabus as well as the methods and materials
they are using.
Another purpose of testing is to provide motivation for students and also strengthen
their further study. Under the pressure of tests, students will pay much attention to the
learning materials central to their course objectives, revise the lessons, learn harder and do
more exercises. Moreover, it is one way to force students to mobilize all their knowledge
and skills to do the test. Students are then motivated to prove what they have learned.
1.3 Achievement tests
Tests in general and language tests in particular are of many types. Language tests
can be classified as oral and written tests depending on the purpose of the test. According to
test purposes, tests can be known as placement, diagnotic, aptitude, proficiency and
achievement tests. According to the way of scoring and marking, they can be grouped into
subjective and objective ones. The author of this paper attempts to focus on achievement
tests only.
1.3.1 Definition
Achievement tests are commonly used at school of all levels and of great
importance in evaluating language knowledge and skills students have aquired during the
English teaching learning process.
Different authors have different ideas about achievement tests. Acording to Spatt

designed to assess students’ progress during the whole course or even a number of courses.
Students will do achievement tests to check whether they have learnt well or not. Here, he
also stress that the aim of achievement tests is to show the standard which students have
reached in relation to other students at the same stage. However, diagnostic tests look back
on the previous courses to identify students’ strength and weakness and they can also be
used to as certain what further teaching is necessary.
1.3.2 Kinds of achievement tests
Achievement tests are divided into two basic types according to the time of
administration. They are namely progress achievement tests and final achievement tests.
(1) Progress achievement tests
Progress achievement tests are usually carried out to measure the extent with
students have mastered from what has been taught in the classroom. In other words, they
measure students’ progress. These tests are, ofcourse, based on the language program
which students have been following and as important an assessment of the teaching
effectiveness as that of students’ own learning.
Results from achievement tests enable teachers to find out and diagnose areas not properly
mastered by students during the course, which need remedial action. They, therefore, are
familiar with the work of each student. Furthermore, these tests provide students with a
good chance to stimulate learning and n what they have been taught to perform the target
language in a positive and effective manner and gain confidence. Good performance is 9 considered a means of encouragement whereas bad performance means incentive to more
work. This is also considered a preparative step to make students familiar with the test.
(2) Final achievement tests
Final achievement tests are given at the end of the course. They, in nature, may also
be similar to progress tests but broader and not specific in scope. These tests help teachers
hurry because teachers could not find time to think carefully and plan the test. In order to
construct a good test, teachers have to consider the purpose of the test, the course content
and above all students’ background. To see this role better, tests must possess some
characteristics namely validity, reliability, practicality and discrimination. All these
characteristics play a very important role in constructing a good test.
1.4.1 Validity
When testers construct a test, they must pay special attention to its validity.
According to Carmen (1995), a test is valid if it measures what you want to measure. In
Aik’s opinion (1983:72), a test is said to be valid it is relevant to the aims and purposes of
the areas of learning on which it is set. In this sense, validity of the test and purposes of the
course syllabus are closely related.
It is not to measure or quantity validity. Several types of validity exists but the most
discussed ones are construct, content and face validity.
A test has construct validity if it refers to the concomitance between the test and the
underlying teaching principles. Hence, tests should reflect course objectives and underline
its teaching principles. With regard to communicative testing, it is essential that tests be as
direct and authentic as possible and they should take into consideration real life and real
communicative tasks.
Content validity refers to the measurement of the syllabus content and skills
specified in the course book. It follows from this that tests should reflect learners’ needs
and their particular domain of use to ensure content validity. It is very easy to achieve this
purpose because the course book designer is the person to decide on the course content.
What test designers to teachers do is to sample this domain, measure it, score it, set up pass/
fail cutoffs, and give grades.
Face validity is supported by the judgement that a test is appealing to
laymen– students, administrations, ect. Hughes (1990) in “testing for Language Teachers
states: “ a test is said to have face validity if it looks as if it supposed to measure”. In other
words, tests should be based on the course content and methodological teaching

method. In “A guide to Language Teaching“, Henning (1987: 76) notes that: “ Subjectivity
in scoring or mechanical errors in the scoring process may introduce the inconsistencies in
scores and produce unreliable measurement”. The more reliable the test result will be, the
less subjective the scoring is.
In short it should be noted that a test could be reliable without possessing validity.
However, reliability is clearly inadequate by itself if a test does not sussecced in measuring
what it is supposed to measure.
1.4.3 Practicality
It would be not good if test constructors are to separate tests’ validity and reliability
from practicality. According to Harrison (1991:13), a valid and reliable test is of little use if
it does not prove to be a practical one. Test practicality refers to financial limitations, time 12 constrains, ease of administration, scoring and interpretation. A test is impractical in case it
is prohibitively expensive and it takes much time to construct.
Another factor affecting practicality of a test is what Oller (1979: 52) calls
instructional value. He suggests “ It ought to be possible to use the test to enhance the
delivery of instruction in student population”. Therefore, teachers are able to understand
their students better.
In conclusion, a test has practicality if it does not involve much time or money in
constructing, implementing, and scoring it.
1.4.4 Discrimination
It ought to incomplete without considering discrimination of a test. According to
Heatont (1988:165), all tests have this feature to reflect differences in the performance of
each individual in the group. It is true for both teacher- made tests and standardized tests. In
order to have this feature, a test must have a scale ranging from extremely easy items to
extremely difficult items. However, the extent of discrimination need varies according to test

speed, flexibility, accuracy, independence, repetition and hesitation. North (1990:96)
simplifies these into range, accuracy, delivery and interaction while Lee (1991:280), for an
analysis of some published rating scales for oral testing, employs the categories of listening
comprehension, grammatical appropriacy, ease of speech and fluency, content and
conversational skills.
1.5.2.1 Listening comprehension
Of the various factors that need to be taken into account is listening
comprehension. This phrase of evaluation is initially tested during the prepared
conversation section of the exam. In some cases, students will remain silent and wait for the
partner to repeat their statement, and this should reflect in a lower rating. At other times a
student may ask for clarification, or ask their partner to repeat what they have said, and this
should reflect in a higher rating. Listening comprehension is the best way to check whether
students understand what their partners are saying.
Closely, testees’vocabulary comprehension is related to their success in listening
comprehension. During a fixed period of time, they have to use all of their listening skill to
complete all the test items successfully. However, comprehension vocabulary is inadequate
to understand anything but the most elementary needs. Testees do not need to understand
the meaning of the individual word. Their listening comprehension can only be achieved
when they have effective skills to understand, exploit, interpret, analyze, synthesize, and
evaluate the test. With the skills of understanding lexical and grammatical items, testees
can find it easier to deduct the meaning of unfamiliar lexical items and understand all the
structural devices such as coherent structures, cohesive features and types of speech that
help them to follow essensial points of discussion speech. Moreover, testees must be able to 14 comprehend the organization of the test and work out the factual content so as to evaluate
it.
15 which has perfect mastery of English grammar, phonology and lexis. As much as possible,
the content should be practical and usable in real- life situations.
1.5.2.5 Conversational skills
Last but not least, what a spoken test tends to test is conversational skills. Testees
must show their skill through conversations with testers. Here conversations have all the
elements of asking questions, listening, thinking and speaking. A good communicator is
listening and thinking actively so that when he/ she speaks it becomes feedback and
contributes to the understanding in a two- way conversation. This total activity is called
effective interactive communication. According to Larry, creating an understanding
between people includes all the forms associated with verbal responses which may be non-
verbal (body language), extra verbal (the emphasis on certain words and sounds) and
(actual words).
Moreover, conversational skills are determined not only by words testees speak but
the behavior they display. It often communicates how they really feel. It, more than
attitudes, tells their past and present reaction to situations. It also indicates how they will
react during similar situations in the future.
In the nutshell, testers should take all of the above skills into account when
designing an oral test and testees should acquire them so that they can get the best result for
the test.
Summary: This chapter has reviewed theories related to the language testing and the
roles it plays in the process of English language teaching and learning as well as important
issues of testing that need to be considered when conducting the research. The highlighted
aspects are language testing, the role of testing, achievement tests, some criteria of a good
test, and testing speaking skills. All of these serve as a basic for carrying out an designing
an English oral achievement test for second year students at Bac Ninh UPES. The next

different educational institutions in Vietnam. Most of them has done the post graduate
degrees . All of them are very enthusiastic and helpful to teach each other and exchange to
teach English.
2.2.2 The students
“ I can understand my teacher’s English, but when I speak to real people I can’t
understand them”. This is a comment I am sure that many teachers of English have ever
heard. However, this is a bit of exaggeration. Students often feel that classroom- speaking
practice does not prepare them for the real world. Why do students highlight speaking skill
the greatest problem?
The majority of the second year students of Bac Ninh UPES are aged from 18 to 23
in general. They are young and enthusiastic and eager to learn English so understanding 17 spoken and written English is not so challenging for them. To use Brown’s words (1994),
they have superior cognitive abilities that can rider them a bit more successful in certain
classroom endeavors.
However, in the same class, there are students who are very active with extremely
undeveloped practical skills, and contrastingly well developed confidence barriers and
anxieties about speaking English.Therefore, it makes teaching and learning English
inconveniently carried out.
Another fact is that students prefer written work, which has to be done with
dictionary, repetition taking notes and vocabulary notebook. Their attention paid to learning
structures and rules mostly hinders their development of communicative ability in the target
language.
Moreover, while teachers at Bac Ninh UPES might be keen on employing
contemporary communicative language teaching methodology, they have also to ensure
that their students acquire necessary linguistic facts to be able to answer grammatical based

English to a position where he can handle the sort of textbook and instructions he will meet
at college and in their future career.
Hence the key points of 6 units for third semester are described as below:
Unit
Aims and objectives
1. The Olympic games
Reading comprehension: Olympic games
Grammar: The past tense and time expressions in the past
Writing: Knowledge about Olympic games.
Speaking and listening: Olympic events
2. Track and field
athletics
Reading comprehension: Track and field athletics
Grammar: The past and present perfect tenses .
Writing: Describing about Track and field athletics events
Speaking and listening: How to practice athletics usefully.
3. Football
Reading comprehension: Football
Grammar: Prepositions of place and relative clause.
Writing: A football match.
Speaking and listening: Football fans.
4. The university of
physical Education and
sports
Reading comprehension: University of physical Education and
sports .
Grammar: Prepositions of place and relative clause.
Writing: History of Bac Ninh UPES.
Speaking and listening: the history of Bac Ninh UPES.
5. Sports and Games

II. Translation (4 points)
III. Making sentences (2 points)
At the first glance, this test looks good and reasonable for students. Besides, it is
very easy for teachers to mark examination papers and students may know their mark
easily.
However, several shortcoming should be mentioned here. First, the test content is
likely to fail to measure knowledge taught during the course. A test is not only a way of
measuring students’ knowledge, but also a kind of motivation or stimulus learners in their
learning. Brown (1994 a: 390) notes: “tests can aid learning”. Since oral skill is a
significant component of the syllabus, it must be assessed in someway with more difficult
requirements. Therefore, one negative impact of those tests is that teachers are likely to
give students simple questions to make it easy for them to pass exams but not take full
advantage of the requirements in the course. Furthermore, the current test does not meet the
demand of communicative abilities despite of the introduction of recent advanced language
teaching methodology. Students are used to learning something by heart because they are to 20 prepare the texts at home, consequently, two-way communication has not yet created. In
order to break this self-confirming circle, to motivate students to develop their oral skill,
the situation needs to be addressed in its entirety. Teachers should find more and more
interesting method of teaching the spoken language, making the learning environment as
conductive to expression and language acquisition as possible.
Above all, having identified tests as the driving force behind learning in
universities. The author of this study find the necessity for adjusting those tests to be more
communicative by designing a new proposed test based on the theoretical need of testing
and evaluation.
2.5 Data collections instruments