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2021年1月17日发(作者：陈慧娴)











基础英语测试学复习题

（一）英语测试的发展阶段

1 Pre-scientific stage
This stage refers to the period that lasted to 1950s. At that time the foreign language
teaching put emphasis on the written form rather than on the communicative aspect of
the
language.
No
special
skill
or
expertise
in
testing
was
required:
the
subjective
judgment of the teacher was considered to be of paramount importance. Test usually
consisted of essay writing, translation, grammatical analysis and sometimes oral tests.
Spolsky
calls
the
traditional
approach
pre-scientific
because
it
paid
no
attention
to
such matters as reliability and objectivity and didn’t use statistical methods.

2 Psychometric-- structure stage

The
dominant
testing
form
in
the
1950s
and
1960s
was
psychometric-- structural
approach. American linguist, Robert Lado, one of the first testing scholar, stressed on
two points with an aim to establish an objective aspect of measuring human language
proficiency: First, test should test language usages and not knowledge about language.

Second, the structures to be tested should be valid structures in colloquial language
use.
The
structural
sentence-based
view
of
language
fitted
in
quite
well
with
the
psychometric quest for samples of individual elements to be tested. This resulted in
standardized
tests
with
an
emphasis
on
discrete
point
items,
which
can
be
further
divided into subtests. The tests are characterized by the conviction that testing can be
objective, precise, reliable and scientific. The multiple-choice format was regarded as
a satisfactory instrument in measuring the proficiency in the comprehension of written
English.
3 Psycholinguistic
—
sociolinguistic stage

This
stage
is
a
period
that
covers
the
1960s
and
1970s
when
Noam
Chomsky’s
linguistics
theory
swayed
the
basis
of
structuralism.
This
involves
the
testing
of
language
in
context
and
is
thus
concerned
primarily
with
meaning
and
the
total
communicative effect of the discourse. As early as 1961, John B. Carroll emphasized
that, in addition to discrete point tests, integrative tests should be used, these are tests
which
are
not
so
much
aimed
at
testing
separate
elements
but
measuring
the
total
communicative effect of an utterance. The integrative test does not seek to separate
the
language
skills
into
neat
divisions
to
improve
test
reliability;
instead,
they
are
often designed to assess the learner’s ability to use two or more skills simultaneously.
Integrative test is best characterized by the use of close testing and of dictation. Oral
interview, translation and essay writing are also included in integrative tests.
4 Communicative pragmatic stage

The communicative pragmatic period began to
occur
corresponding with the
global
shift
since
1970s
to
the
communicative
aspect
of
language
in
the
international
educational
circle.
The
rise
of
the
sociolinguistics
has
brought
about
a
shift
to
the
interest
from
linguistic
competence
to
communicative
competence.
The
communicative
test
aims
to
measure
candidates’
communicative
competency.
Communicative competency is associated not only with the linguistic competence, but
also with the communicative competence. The communicative test is characterized by

1
the strong emphasis on actual use of language in real-life settings which have to be
based on the communicative needs of the learners.


（二）测试的效度和信度

1 Validity

Validity
is
the
degree
to
which
a
test
measures
what
it
is
supposed
to
measure,
or
can
be
used
successfully for the purposes for which it is intended. Every test, whether it be a short, informal
classroom or a public examination, should be as valid as the constructor can make it. A number of
types of validation are applied to tests. In this brief survey, we shall limit our consideration to just
a few of the most common categories.
A: Content validity


This
kind
of
validity
depends
on
a
careful
analysis
of
the
language
being
tested
and
of
the
particular
course
objectives.
This
test
should
be
so
constructed
as
to
contain
a
representative
sample
of
the
course,
the
relationship
between
the
test
items
and
the
course
objectives
always
being apparent. When embarking on the


construction of a test, the test writer should first draw
up a table of test specifications describing in very clear and precise terms the particular language
skills and areas to be included in the test. The test writer should attempt to qualify and balance the
test
components,
assigning
a
certain
value
to
indicate
the
importance
of
each
component
in
relation to the other components in the test. In this way, the test could achieve content validity and
reflect the component skills and areas which the test writer wishes to include in the assessment.
B: Construct validity
If
a
test
has
construct
validity,
it
is
capable
of
measuring
certain
specific
characteristics
in
accordance
with
a
theory
of
language
behavior
and
learning.
This
type
of
validity
assumes
the
existence of certain learning theories or constructs underlying the acquisition of abilities and skills.
For example, it can be argued that a speed reading test based on a short comprehension passages is
an
inadequate
measure
of
reading
ability
(and
thus
has
a
low
construct
validity)
unless
it
is
believed that the speed reading of short passages relates to the ability to read a book quickly and
efficiently and is a proven factor in reading ability.
C: Empirical validity

The
best
way
to
check
on
the
actual
effectiveness
of
a
test
is
to
determine
how
test
scores
are
related
to
some
independent,
outside
criterion
such
as
marks
given
at
the
end
of
a
course
or
assessors’ ratings. If the evidence shows that there is a high co
-relation between test scores and a
trustworthy external criterion, then the test can be claimed to have empirical validity. Empirical
validity is of two general kinds, predicative and concurrent validity, depending on the whether test
scores are co- related with subsequent or concurrent criterion measures. Empirical validity relies in
large part on the reliability of both test and criterion measure.

D: Face validity

Face
validity
here
simply
refers
to
the
way
the
test
looks
—
to
the
examiners,
test
administers,
educators
and
the
like.
Obviously,
this
is
not
validity
in
the
technical
sense,
yet
its
importance
should not be underestimated, for if the content of a test appears irrelevant, silly or inappropriate,
test
administers
will
hesitate
to
adopt
it
and
examinees
will
lack
the
proper
motivation.
For
example,
if
a
test
of
reading
comprehension
contains
many
dialect
words
which
might
be
unknown to the students, the test may be said to lack face validity.









2
2 Reliability

Reliability is a measure of the degree to which a test gives consistent results. A test is said to be
reliable if it gives the same results when it is given on different occasions or when it is used by
different people. A test can’t measure anything well unless it measures consistently. Two di
fferent
types of consistency or reliability are involved: reliability of the test itself and reliability of the
scoring of the test. Test reliability is affected by a number of factors, chiefly among them being the
adequacy
of
the
samplings
of
tasks.
Gener
ally
speaking,
the
more
samples
of
students’
performance
we
take,
the
more
reliable
will
be
our
assessment
of
knowledge
and
ability.
In
addition,
test
reliability
will
be
adversely
affected
if
the
conditions
under
which
the
test
is
administered tend to fluctuate from administration to administration. Poor students motivation will
also lower the reliability of a test. There are some factors beyond the examiners’ control. (e.g., by
illness or personal problems affecting a number of examinees). Scorer or rater reliability concerns
the
stability
or
consistency
with
which
tests
performances
are
evaluated.
Scorer
reliability
is
nearly perfect in the case of multiple-choice tests, but tends to be low in the case of free-response
test.
（三）测试的目的

Purposes of test

（
1
）

Language
tests
can
be
used
as
sources
of
information
for
making
decisions
within
the
context of education programs.
A .Selection for instructional programs

Some educational programs require selection or entrance examinations. The purpose of this type
of
tests
is
to
discriminate
among
those
students
who
are
prepared
for
an
academic
or
training
program and those who are not

.

For example, the American TOEFL TEST is used to measure
the English language proficiency of foreign students who want to study in U.S.A.
B. Placement of students
In
many
language
programs,
students
are
grouped
homogeneously
according
to
such
factors
as
levels
of
language
proficiency,
language
aptitude,
language
use
needs
and
professional
or
academic
specialization.
Probably
the
most
common
criterion
for
grouping
students
in
such
programs is the level of language proficiency. Therefore, placement tests are frequently designed
to measure the students’ language proficiency .

C. Measuring progress
The common use of language testing is to
provide information on students’ progress, so that the
teacher
will
be
able
to
locate
the
precise
areas
of
difficulty
encountered
by
the
class
or
by
the
individual
students
and
make
decisions
regarding
appropriate
modifications
in
the
instructional
procedures and learning activities.

D. Evaluation of language teaching
The
tests
should
also
enable
the
teacher
to
ascertain
which
parts of
the
language
program
have
been found difficult by the class and whether the class objectives are met. In this way, the teacher
can evaluate the effectiveness of the syllabus as well as the methods and materials he is using.

（
2
）
Language tests have a potentially important role in virtually all language research, both basic
and applied, which is related to the nature of language proficiency, language processing, language
acquisition and language teaching. Much current research into the nature of language proficiency
has
now
come
to
focus
on
identifying
and
empirically
verifying
its
various
components.
Of
particular interest in this regard are models of communicative competence, which have provided

3
the theoretical basis for the development of communicative testing. Such tests in turn provide the
basis
for
verifying
the
theoretical
models.
Language
tests
can
also
be
used
in
research
into
the
nature of language processing. Response to the language tests can offer a rich body of data for the
identification of processing errors and their explanations, while language testing techniques can
serve as elicitation procedures for collecting information on language processing.

A third research use of language tests is in the examination of the nature of language acquisition.
Several studies have used tests of different components of communicative language proficiency as
criteria for examining the effect of learner variables such as length of residence in country, age of
first
exposure
to
the
target
language
and
motivational
orientation
on
language
acquisition.
Language
tests
are
also
sometimes
used
as
indicators
of
factors
related
to
the
second
language
acquisition, such as language aptitude and level of proficiency in the native language.
Language
tests
play
an
important
role
in
the
investigation
of
effects
of
different
instructional
settings
and
techniques
on
the
language
teaching.
They
have
provided
criterion
indicators
of
language
proficiency
for
studies
in
the
classroom
—
centered
second
language
learning,
and
for
research into the relationship between different language teaching strategies and aspects of second
language components.

（四）对语言能力的不同定义

1 Chomsky’s definition about the competence

Chomsky (1965) first introduced the term competence and performance. Competence refers to the
speaker
–hearer’s knowledge of language and regards as competent those who know the language
perfectly and are ―
unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory limitations,
distractions,
shifts
of
attention
and
interest,
and
errors
in
their
actual
performances
(Chomsky
,1965).
He
briefly
addresses
performance
as
the
actual
use
of
language
in
concrete
situations. He regards competence as the proper domain of his linguistic study and largely ignores
the study of performance.

2 Hymes’ model about the communicative competence

Hymes (1972) criticized the Chomsky’s formulation of competence and proposed h
is own notion
of
the
competence
which
encompasses
a
much
larger
scope
—
communicative
competence.
This
notion is intended to include not only grammatical competence ( or implicit or explicit knowledge
of the rules of the grammar),but also contextual or sociolinguistic competence (knowledge of the
rules of language use.)
3 Canale and Swain’s model about the communicative competence

Canale
and
Swain
(1980)
expanded
Hymes’
notion
of
communicative
competence
further
to
include
grammatical
competence,
sociolinguistic
competence
and
strategic
competence.
The
model
was
subsequently
updated
by
Canale
(1983),
who
proposed
a
four-dimensional
model
comprising linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence. Their model provides a
useful
theoretical
framework
for
developing
communicative
tests.
Linguistic
competence
is
understood
to
reflect
the
knowledge
of
vocabulary
and
the
rules
of
the
word
formation,
pronunciation
/spelling
and
sentence
formation.
Such
competence
focuses
directly
on
the
knowledge
and
skills
required
to
understand
and
express
accurately
the
literal
meaning
of
utterances. Sociolinguistic competence addresses the extent to which utterances are produced and
understood appropriately in different sociolinguistic contexts, depending on the contextual factors
such
as
topic,
status
of
participants
and
the
purpose
of
the
interaction.
Appropriateness
of
the
utterance
refers
to
the
both
appropriateness
of
meaning
and
appropriateness
of
form.
Discourse

4

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