Quality of Written Instructions in Teacher-Made Tests of English as a Foreign Language
Tóm tắt
Test instructions inform learners how they should behave and proceed in a testing situation, what is expected from them, and how their answers will be assessed. Despite their impact on test performance, the available literature on foreign language test construction is lacking in regard to instructions. By reviewing the relevant contemporary literature, the authors compiled a list of six criteria (length, language, type of sentence, informativeness, component parts, medium of communication) that need to be met in writing quality instructions. Subsequently, 64 English language tests containing 308 instructions for grades 5–8 of elementary school in Serbia were analyzed to assess to what extent they fulfilled these criteria. The instructions were found to be sufficiently concise and clear, and were primarily written in the foreign language of study. However, many were not sufficiently detailed and lacked important information. The analysis revealed three other criteria quality instructions should meet which were not found in the consulted literature: contextualization/personalization, correctness, and language accuracy. Few instructions meeting the first additional criterion were found, while a greater number of examples were illustrative of the remaining two. The results necessitate that teachers of English as a foreign language be trained in writing test instructions either as part of their initial teacher education or professional development in order to be able to conduct quality testing.
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