1. DESIGNING CLASSROOM
LANGUAGE TESTS
Week 4
Sutrisno Sadji Evenddy, M.Pd.

2. Critical Questions to Start Designing
a Test
• What is the purpose of the test?
• What are the objectives of the test?
• How will the test specifications reflect both
the purpose and the objectives?
• How will the test tasks be selected and the
separate items arranged?
• What kind of scoring, grading, and/or
feedback expected?

3. 1. What is the purpose of the test?
• Why are you creating this test, or why was it
created by a textbook writer?
• What is its significance relative to your course
(for example, to evaluate overall proficiency or
place a student in a course)?
• How important is the test compared to other
student performance?
• What will its impact be on you and your
students before and after the assessment?

4. 2. What are the objectives of the test?
• What exactly are you trying to find out?
• What language knowledge and/or skills are
you assessing?

5. 3. How will the test specifications
reflect both the purpose and the
objectives?
• To design or evaluate a test, you must make
sure that the test has a structure that logically
follows from the unit or lesson it is testing.
• The class objectives should be present in the
test through appropriate task types and
weights, a logical sequence, and a variety of
tasks.

6. 4. Selection & Arrangement of Tasks?
• The test tasks need to be practical.
• For the test to be valid, they should also
mirror tasks of the course, lesson or segment.
• They should be authentic (i.e. reflect
real‐world language use).
• The tasks must be ones that can be evaluated
reliably by the teacher.

7. 5. Scoring, Grading, Feedback?
• The appropriate form of feedback on tests will
vary, depending on the purpose.
• For every test, the way results are reported is
an important consideration.
• Under some circumstances, a letter grade or
score may be appropriate.
• Other circumstances may require that the
teacher provide detailed feedback to the
students.

8. Tests Types
• Language Aptitude Tests
• Proficiency Tests
• Placement Tests
• Diagnostic Tests
• Achievement Tests

9. Aptitude tests
• To predict a person’s future success in learning
a (any) foreign language
• Taken before actual learning

10. Proficiency tests
• Measure general ability in a language
• Regardless of previous training

11. Placement tests
• To assign students to classes/programs
appropriate to their level of proficiency
• Define characteristics of each level of
proficiency

12. Diagnostic tests
• Identify students’ strengths and weaknesses
• To benefit future instruction
• Difficult to construct. Lack of good ones.

13. Achievement tests
• Measure how successful students are in achieving
objectives of a lesson/course/curriculum
• Closely related to the content of a particular
lesson/course/ curriculum
• Syllabus content approach OR course objectives
approach?
• Final achievement tests / progress achievement tests
(formative assessment)
• Frequency?

14. Practical Steps To Test Construction
1. Assessing Clear, Unambiguous Objectives
2. Drawing up Test Specifications
3. Devising Test Tasks
4. Designing Multiple-Choice Test Items

15. Assessing Clear, Unambiguous Objectives

16. Test Specification

17. Devising Test Task

19. Design each item to measure
a specific objective

20. State both stem and options as simply
and directly possible

21. Make certain that the intended answer
is clearly the only correct one

22. Thank You