1. Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción
Facultad de Educación
Departamento de Lenguas
Language Assessment
UNIT FOUR
Online performance-based assessment
instruments
Dannae Del Campo and Gabriela Quezada
Professor
Roxana C. Correa
Concepción, 2014
3. Grammar
Webpage chosen:
http://englishteststore.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11387&
Itemid=427
English Test Store is a free source that provides a great variety of options
regarding to the assessment of grammar, vocabulary, listening, speaking, among
others. This website gives the learner the opportunity to practice and assess
his/her performances on different levels of proficiency, regarding to grammar there
are more than one hundred number of items, which are related to different topics
such as articles, verb to be, tenses, adverbs, American v/s British, prepositions,
adjectives, etc.
According to Purpura (2004), there are two types of tasks at the moment of
assessing grammar: selected response and limited production. Regarding to
selected response tasks, the website provides multiple choice item, in which the
learner receive the feedback immediately after his/her answer with a brief
explanation of the correct answer, and at the end of the test it provides the learner
a chart with a summary of the his/ her performances, which details the total
number of questions, full score, passing rate, passing score, the learner’s score
and the elapse. In terms of limited production, the webpage provides fill in the
gaps and sentence transformation. In the item of fill in the gaps, in each gap the
test provides a selection of words that can be used. At the end of the test, the
learner will receive the same feedback that was mentioned in the multiple choice
item. Finally, in the sentence transformation item, the students have to paraphrase
the given sentence. At the end of the test the same feedback will be given.
In terms of advantages, it can be said that the webpage is well organized.
The different topics with their corresponding level are clearly stated; Moreover,
each test presents the format and how it has to be answered before the learner
start it. Another advantage of this website is the amount of questions per tests,
because each test just has ten questions, which avoid that students get bored or
distracted in the middle of it. Finally in terms of feedback, as it was mentioned
4. above, it is very clear because after each answer, the student will know if he/she
answers correctly or not, and also he/she will receive a brief explanation of the
correct answer; furthermore, at the end of each test, the overall performance of the
learner will be detail and the option of an overview of the test.
Vocabulary
Webpage chosen:
http://englishteststore.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=
11404&Itemid=19
English test store is a useful website for learners of a second language to
add and learn new vocabulary. This webpage provides a wide variety of exercises
to test learners’ vocabulary and it divides it in categories. Learners can select to
learn basic vocabulary, antonyms and synonyms, irregular verbs in the simple past
form and irregular verbs in the past participle form, regular verbs, idioms and it also
prepare learners for tests such as: TOEIC, SAT, GMAT, TOEFL IBT and GRE. In
addition to this, English test store provides immediate feedback on the
performance of the learner; which means that, if learners commit a mistake the
system will make them aware that they have to reconsider their answer. At the end
of the questions, the test provides the learner a chart with a summary of the
learner’s performance with the total number of questions, full score, passing rate,
passing score, the learner’s score and the elapse. Among the types of tests the
webpage provides are: the multiple choice items where the learner has to choose
the correct picture which corresponds to the word given, definitions where the
learner has to decide which is the best definition of the word given and fill in the
gaps where the test taker must select the most suitable word for the definition
given.
Regarding the 3 dimensions named by Read (2000), this webpage presents
as a first dimension a discrete assessment instrument because the vocabulary is
assessed as an independent construct, in the second dimension, the range of
5. vocabulary is selective because it measures specific vocabulary items depending
on the category the learners will choose, and in the third dimension the role of
context is context-independent because the vocabulary measured by the test taker
can be answered without referring to any context. Consequently, in the last
dimension named above, the assessment will be more reliable when the role of the
context is context-independent because the rater can separate the scoring of pure
vocabulary knowledge from the other skills, such as reading and listening.
(Read,2000)
In terms of advantages, this website is well organized in terms of vocabulary
categories. Thus, students can choose the topics they want to improve. Another
advantage is the number of questions for each test, because learning vocabulary is
not effective when you learn a wide number of words per day. Finally, the last
advantage is that learners will receive feedback after each answer they provide;
therefore, the student will immediately be aware if the answer is correct or not.
6. References
Godwin-Jones, B. 2001. Language Testing Tools and Technology Language
Learning & Technology, Vol. 5, No. 2, May 2001, 8-12
Purpura, J. (2004) Assessing Grammar. Cambridge University Press. United
Kingdom.
Read, J. (2000). Assessing vocabulary . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
