Oral language testing at tay nguyen university  (Page 12/53)

Whether a test is useful or not much depends on test development process. Bachman and Palmer (1996) divide test development into three stages such as design stage, operationalization stage and administration stage.

This process of test development is illustrated in the figure 2.4

Test Development

Design stageAdministration stageOperationalization stage

-Purpose(s) of the test-Tasks in the TLU domain-Characteristics of the test takers-Construct to be measured-Plan for evaluation of test usefulness-Resources- Test task specifications- Blueprint-Giving the test-Collecting test results -Analyzing the results

Figure 2.4: The Model of Test Development

The design stage involves describing and identifying all the factors related to the test. These factors are the purpose(s) of the test as a whole, target language use tasks, test takers’ characteristics, language ability to be measured, usefulness of the test and resources.

The operationalization stage consists of two sub-stages. The former is the development of test task specifications referring to the purpose of individual test tasks, the construct to be measured, the setting, time allotment, instructions for responding to the task, characteristics of test input, and scoring method. The latter is the development of a blueprint – a description of ‘how test tasks will be organized to form actual tests’. The blueprint is therefore the structure of a test including the number of test tasks/parts and the relative importance of tasks/parts intended for the purpose(s) of the whole test, and the specifications of each test task.

The administration stage involves giving the test to a group of specific test takers, collecting test results, and analyzing the results.

2.3.1 design stage

The Design stage involves six activities all aiming at producing a design statement as a principled basis for the other two stages (Bachman&Palmer, 1996, p. 88). The six activities are as follows:

(1) Description of the test purpose(s). First specific inferences about language ability and capacity for language use made from the test takers’ performance are explicitly stated, and then specific decisions based on these inferences are provided.

(2) Identification and description of test tasks in the target language use (TLU) domain. A set of the TLU task types is characterized as the basis for developing actual test tasks.

(3) Description of the characteristics of the test takers. The characteristics to be believed to be particularly relevant to test development involve personal characteristics, topical knowledge, general level and profile of language ability, and predictions about test takers’ potential affective responses to the test.

(4) Definition of the construct/ability to be measured. The components of language ability to be assessed through the test task(s) are critically determined.

(5) Development of a plan for evaluating test usefulness. This plan consists of three parts as follows:

an initial consideration of the appropriate balance among the six qualities of usefulness and the setting of minimum acceptable levels for each,