Evaluating a placement test

Abstract

The nature and validation of placement tests is rarely discussed in the language testing literature, yet placement tests are probably one of the commonest forms of tests used within institutions which are not designed by individual teachers and which are used to make decisions across the institution rather than within individual classes. Questions to be asked in the validation and evaluation of any placement test include the following: Does the placement test correctly identify those students who most need English and study skills classes? Do the students who take the test feel that their language has been accurately measured? Is the content of the test appro priate to the uses made of the tests? Is the test reliable? This paper reports on an attempt to validate an institutional placement test at Lancaster University. After presenting the results of the study, the paper comments both on the validity and reliability of the test, and on the wider issues that influence how validation studies of placement tests can be carried out.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alderson, J.C. and Windeatt, S. 1981: Unpublished paper, Institute for English Language Education, Lancaster University.

Baleap 1990: Report on a BALEAP questionnaire to British universities on the English language testing of overseas students. Language Testing Update 7, 2-25.

Brumby, S. 1983: The problems of overseas students: a wide approach to needs analysis with specific reference to postgraduate overseas students on the Diploma in Business Analysis. MA thesis, Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language, Lancaster University.

Criper, C. and Davies, A. 1988: ELTS validation project report. London : British Council and University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate.

Fok, C.Y.Y.A. 1981: Reliability of student self-assessment. Paper presented at BAAL Seminar on Language Testing, Reading, England.

Geoghehan, G. 1983: Non-native speakers of English at Cambridge University. Cambridge: The Bell Educational Trust.

Heward, S. 1989: The in-sessional test: an exercise in evaluation. MA dissertation , Lancaster University.

Hughes, A. , Porter, D. and Weir, C.J. , editors, 1988: ELTS validation project: proceedings of a conference held to consider the ELTS validation project report (research report 1 (ii)). London and Cambridge: The British Council and the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate.

LeBlanc, R. and Painchaud, G. 1985: Self-assessment as a second language placement instrument . TESOL Quarterly 19, Number 4.

10.

Marshall-Lee, A. 1983: A study of causes of attrition in non-compulsory in-sessional English language courses run by the Institute for English Language Education at Lancaster University 1982-1983. Diploma dissertation, IELE, Lancaster University.

11.

Oskarsson, M. 1978: Approaches to self-assessment in foreign language learning . Oxford: Pergamon Press.

12.

Smith, J. 1983: Are courses in language and study skills enough? An investigation into the situation of postgraduate students in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Lancaster. MA thesis, Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language, Lancaster University.