IDIOMAS
HOW DO THEY DO IT...?
LANGUAGE TESTS
Texto: DIEGE
Like in the popular TV show, in this episode
54
we are going to unveil the secrets
of the process we follow to produce the
“fearful” SLP tests you know so well.
Things are slightly more complicated than
you may think...
Let’s take for granted that we know HOW
we are going to test. This is, we know
the test structure, which was decided by
someone higher in our chain of command.
This structure, the type of questions, and
all the technical requirements (number of
items, length of texts and questions, duration
of audio extracts, topics, formats,
time allocation, etc.) are usually written in
a document called “Test specifications”.
In our case, tests will be based on multiple
choice questions (MCQ) for listening
and reading comprehension, composition
writing for written expression, and
THE
ENGLISH
CORNER
oral proficiency interview for oral expression.
With this information, test writers
can start their job.
SAMPLING
Oral Proficiency interviews are a very specific
tool to test oral expression, and will
be subject to a future article. Let’s talk
about items to test reading and listening
comprehension, or writing. When we start
creating an item, first we have to decide
about its purpose: what we are going to
test. This is a twofold decision. First of
all, we have to decide about the task, linguistic
function or subskill (i.e. in listening
comprehension, do we test note-taking,
understanding main meaning, or getting
specific data?). In SLP tests, this should always
be in accordance with the tasks assigned
to each level in the STANAG 6001.
After that, we select a text (or audio) with
interesting information to ask questions
about, or a topic to write a composition.
Altogether, the items in a full test should
ideally cover the maximum number of
topics, tasks and subskills.