Quality of Written Instructions in Teacher-Made Tests of English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

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.

摘要

測驗指導語能讓學習者得知在測驗的情境中,他們該如何表現和進行測試,對他們的期望是什麼,及他們的答案將會如何被評量。儘管測驗指導語對測驗成績有影響,但在現有的外語測驗建構的文獻中仍顯不足。回顧相關當代文獻後,作者整理出六個在撰寫高品質測驗指導語時需符合的指標(長度、語言、句型、資訊量、組成要件、溝通媒介)。隨後,我們對塞爾維亞5-8年級64個英語測驗中的308個指導語進行分析,以評估這些指導語符合上述六個指標的程度。分析結果發現,這些指導語均相當簡潔清楚,且主要是以學習的外語編寫而成。然而,許多指導語仍不夠詳細,且缺乏重要資訊。分析發現,高品質的指導語還應符合另外三個未在文獻中發現的指標:情境化/個人化、正確性、和語言準確性。符合第一項附加指標的指導語很少,足以說明其餘兩個指標的例子則較多。研究結果顯示英語老師有必要接受編寫測驗指導語的訓練,此訓練可作為師資培育或是教師專業發展的一部分,以便進行高品質測驗。