Ultimately, i argue that important ethical questions, along with other issues of validity, will be articulated differently from a critical perspective than they are in the more traditional approach to language assessment. Reliability and validity are concepts used to evaluate the quality of research. For example in achievement testing, one measures, using points, how much knowledge a. Pdf validity and reliability in quantitative research. The present study examined the reliability and content validity of an english as a foreign language efl gradelevel test for turkish 3 rd grade primary students. What are the nonstatistical attributes of reliable tests. Measurement reliability explained in simple language.
With regard to which method one should use, in addition to rater reliability and score discrepancy as investigated in this study, one would also have to take into many other factors, such as the purpose of testing, rater qualification and availability, time, and cost. The approach was primarily a rejection of the role that reliability and validity had come to play in language testing, mainly in the united states during the 1960s. Jan, 2017 despite the profusion of studies into the factor structure of language tests, limited research is currently available on the relationship between test performance and language use in tlu domains. Soundings in data testing by anthony oliver phd dr. Northwest university, private bag x6001, potchefstroom 2520 johann. Achievement of construct validity in language testing. Describe an english language test with which you are familiar and discuss how valid and reliable the test appears to be.
Introduction validity and reliability have traditionally been regarded as the basic criteria which any language test should satisfy. Language test reliability alta lang quality assurance. This chapter provides a simplified explanation of these two complex ideas. Validity could also be internal the yeffect is based on the manipulation of the xvariable and not on some. To make a valid test, you must be clear about what you are testing. Evaluation goes beyond student achievement and language assessment to con. Language testing, v14 n2 p139 jul 1997 describes a reliability and validity study of the placement test used at the university of surrey, england, to identify students requiring english language support while studying at the university level. Research among other language learning populations is needed to offer empirically grounded suggestions on how best to achieve high levels of l2 literacy. How do you determine if a test has validity, reliability, fairness, and legal defensibility. Manual for language test development and examining coe. Introduction to issues in language assessment and terminology in todays language classrooms, the term assessment usually evokes images of an endofcourse paperandpencil test designed to tell both teachers and students how much material the student doesnt know or hasnt yet mastered. Test administration reliability which can be caused by the conditions in which a test is administered. The practice of testing is related here to views on communicative language teaching and testing.
The thesis is concerned with testing english as a foreign language in general and concentrates on testing in qatar in particular. Reliability, on the other hand, is not at all concerned with intent, instead asking whether the test used to collect data produces accurate results. Rudiger grotjahn is a professor at the department of second language research, university of bochum. Issues of research reliability and validity need to be addressed in methodology chapter in a concise manner. Issues of validity and reliability in second language performance assessment yenfen liao teachers college, columbia university with an increasing practical need for language tests that can provide predictive information about how successfully a candidate will perform in a non testing setting, second language. Test reliability and validity are two technical properties of a test that indicate the quality and usefulness of the test. Understanding validity and reliability in classroom. The reliability of test scores is the extent to which they are consistent across different occasions of testing, different editions of the test, or different raters scoring the test takers responses. If the results match, as in if the child is found to be impaired or not with both tests, the test designers use this as evidence of concurrent validity. Test validity is an indicator of how much meaning can be placed upon a set of test results. Pdf validity and reliability of the research instrument.
They indicate how well a method, technique or test measures something. It is my belief that validity is more important than reliability because if an instrument does not accurately measure what it is supposed to, there is no reason to use it even if it measures consistently reliably. Some proponents have even maintained that a tests validity should be appraised by the degree to which it manifests positive or negative washback, a notion akin to the proposal of systemic validity in the educational measurement. Rater reliability and score discrepancy under holistic and. The manual for language test development and examining is designed to be complementary to that manual. Validity was created by kelly in 1927 who argued that a test is valid only if it measures what it is supposed to measure. Validity and reliability in quantitative research article pdf available in evidencebased nursing 183. Criterion validity concurrent validity predictive validity. Ensuring valid content tests for english language learners. Natural environment without noise and pollution will be the best choice. Reliability vs validity in research differences, types. Conversely, reliability concentrates on precision, which measures the extent to which scale produces consistent outcomes. The concept of reliability in language testing the characteristics of a good language test are. Testing english as a foreign language sprachenmarkt.
Validity and reliability in social science research 111 items can first be given as a test and, subsequently, on the second occasion, the odd items as the alternative form. Reliability is about the consistency of a measure, and validity is about the accuracy of a measure. Issues in language testing this book is based on papers and discussions at a lancaster university symposium in october 1980 where seven applied linguists met to discuss problems in language testing. You should examine these features when evaluating the suitability of the test for your use. A brief summary of the issues related to reliability in language testing source. Pdf the article is a brief historical overview of english language testing, particularly the testing of english as a second or foreign language. This report describes a reliability and validity study of the placement test which is used at the university of surrey as a means of identifying students who may require english language support whilst studying at undergraduate or postgraduate levels. Rr9617 validity and washback in language testing author. The validity and reliability of a testing procedure should be demonstrated periodically, especially if the procedure has. What you need to know as an informed consumer about the reliability and validity of psychological tests. The purpose of this study was to investigate validity and reliability of the test of nonverbal intelligence2 toni2.
It is, in fact, a revised version of an earlier council of europe document originally known as a users guide for examiners. Do they believe such evaluations can be done so as to achieve sufficient reliability and validity to be. This is the degree to which two independent raters. Mar 26, 20 language testing and evaluation validity and reliability. Read these three articles and then reflect upon or discuss the following. Communicative language testing weir, 1990 reliability and validity social functions of language testing ethical language testing washback impact qi, 2002. This paper presents the test construction procedure applied to the devising of an achievement test in general english for students at plovdiv university pu.
Chiedu department of languages, delta state polytechnic, ogwashiuku. Durham etheses testing english as a foreign language. Methods to establish validity and reliability by albert barber 1. These are the two most important features of a test. In psychological and educational testing, where the importance and accuracy of tests is paramount, test validity is crucial. Measuring validity and reliability of questionnaires. Reliability refers to the extent to which the same answers can be obtained using the same instruments more than one time. Reliability and content validity of an english as a foreign. Utilizing the structural equation modeling approach, this study set out to investigate the factor structure of a highstakes universitybased english proficiency test, and then modeled the. Issues of validity and reliability in second language.
Validity and reliability in social science research. Conceptual bases on language testing, designing and constructing useful language tests, and collecting, analyzing, and using information from language tests. Language testing, validity, reliability, washback abstract language testing is a fundamental part of learning and teaching in school today, and has been throughout history even though views on language testing have changed. Reliability and content validity of an english as a. Two studies investigating the reliability and validity of. There are three major categories of reliability for most instruments. Then, comparing the responses at the two time points. Abstract reliability is concerned with how we measure. The general topic of examining differences in test validity for different examinee groups is known as differential validity. Language testing ppt factor analysis educational assessment. Two important aspects of authenticity in language testing are situational and.
Oliver is the academic dean of the caribbean graduate school of theology 2006 introduction in the domain of social science research there have been major debates on the issues of validity and reliability of data. This type of reliability test has a disadvantage caused by memory effects. Oct 05, 2015 the following article will answer this question and more with first explaining what reliability testing is followed by the various types of testing involved. Its important to consider reliability and validity when you are creating your research. For this reason, data were collected from 618 soccer players 544 male. In simple terms, if your research is associated with high levels of. In this assessment, you can expect to be asked about things like types of validity, examples of validity, and the definitions of reliability and validity. Methods to establish validity and reliability mindmeister. No matter what kind of testing is used, alta pays critical attention to the quality assurance of its tests. How do you determine if a test has validity, reliability. Content validity evidence established by inspecting a test question to see whether they correspond to what the user decides should be covered by the test.
Testing and assessment understanding test qualityconcepts of reliability. Brown, sherbenou and johnsen, 1990 for soccer in turkey. One of the ways alta ensures reliability of its language test results is through scrutinizing our interrater reliability. Always test what you have taught and can reasonably expect your students to know. Testing and assessment reliability and validity hrguide. Achievement of construct validity in language testing avoiding test bias huo ying, liu wei northeastern university, shenyang, china as an independent discipline, language testing is an important means of inspecting and assessing teaching effectiveness and learning outcomes. Authenticity is a longstanding concern in language testing as well as in teaching. This guide explains the meaning of several terms associated with the concept of test reliability. Chapter ii presents an overview of the historical stages of development of testing and relates the qatari situation to. Introduction to issues in language assessment and terminology. Validity and washback in language testing samuel messick. Test reliability which is caused by the nature of a test. Topic 4 defines the basic principles of assessment reliability, validity, practicality, washback, and authenticity and the essential subcategories within reliability and validity. Reliability and validity evidence for the ged english as a.
More specifically, the study focuses on an undergraduate english language testing and evaluation elte course offered at the department of foreign language education. A test with poor reliability, on the other hand, might result in very different scores for the examinee across the two test administrations. Bachman slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. Discuss how reliability and validity affect outcome measures and conclusions of. An instrument is valid only to the extent that its scores permit appropriate inferences to be made about a a specific group of people for b specific purposes. How can teachers increase their classroom tests reliability. If a test yields inconsistent scores, it may be unethical to take any substantive actions on the basis of the test. Reliability and validity university of wisconsinmadison. Bachman explores language testing from a theoretical point of view in this book. Test validity incorporates a number of different validity types, including criterion validity, content validity and construct. We are familiar with quality control testing, where a product is subjected to quality test checks to uncover defects. Mar 08, 2015 a brief summary of the issues related to reliability in language testing source. Perhaps the one warning i would give is that this book is a little statisticsheavy, and it assumes that you have at least some knowledge of statistics.
I found the coverage of measurement, testing purposes, reliability, and validity to be very useful. His numerous publications include extensive work on the ctest. Identify the need for reliability and validity of instruments used in evidencebased practice. Importance of validity and reliability in classroom. Language testing and evaluation validity and reliability.
If time is not enough in such tests, the reliability of the tests will be influenced. An evaluation of the validity and reliability of the classic. An instrument that is a valid measure of third graders language skills probably is not a valid measure of high school students language proficiency. Briefly, construct validity is to interpret test scores in order to assess the language proficiency of the subject and test tasks. When examinees with different levels of english proficiency take the same content. There are several methods for computing test reliability including test. Omenogor department of english, college of education, agbor, delta state. In this context, accuracy is defined by consistency whether the results could be replicated. An instructors guide to understanding test reliability. Research has shown a strong correlation between l2 vocabulary knowledge and l2 reading proficiency. Validity and washback in language testing keywords. Two studies investigating the reliability and validity of the english. Another aspect of definition given by stevens is the use of the term numeral rather than number.
Reliability is the degree to which test scores for a group of test takers are consistent over repeated applications of a measurement procedure and hence are inferred to be dependable, and repeatable for an individual test taker. His main research interests are in language testing, research methodology, and the study of individual differences in language learning. Chapter i provides a brief overview of education in qatar to form a solid basis for the study. The sat is a good example of a test with predictive validity when the test scores are highly correlated with success in college, a future performance. Nevertheless, it was not until the 1940s, that language testing became an object for scientific research, with vilareals test of aural comprehension in 1947 and lados measurement in english as a foreign language in 1949 kunnan 1999. You may complete this activity individually or in groups. Fundamental considerations in language testing lyle f. This involves giving the questionnaire to the same group of respondents at a later point in time and repeating the research. Checkpoint has been developed by aviation english testing experts according to the highest standards of language test development. Language testing is concerned with both content and methodology. A numeral is a symbol and has no quantitative meaning unless the researcher supplies it through the use. Describe any procedures you would use to establish its validity and reliability.
While the content validity index cvi was found to be low. If possible, include illustrative examples from the test itself. Reliability and validity in student assessment 1 youtube. If an instrument lacks validity or reliability, the meaning of individual scores becomes otiose. Pdf questionnaire is one of the most widely used tools to collect data in especially social science research. The property of ignorance of intent allows an instrument to be simultaneously reliable and invalid. Understanding validity and reliability in classroom, schoolwide, or district. Brief analysis on main factors affecting testing reliability. A score of 90 on an invalid or unreliable test would be no different from a score of 50. At the conclusion of this chapter, the learner will be able to. To sum up, validity and reliability are two vital test of sound measurement. Verbal protocol analysis in language testing research. In the introduction, the books editor charles alderson refers to the discomfort felt by many language.
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