For your assignment this week, you'll need to write up test specifications for

three different assessment scenarios:

1. a reading quiz

2. a grammar unit test

3. a listening/speaking final exam

For a further description of each testing scenario, please re-read pages

54-55 in Brown & Abeywickrama (2010).

In each set of your test specifications, you should include:

● a description of the test's content

● item types (e.g. multiple choice, true/false, short answer, cloze
passage, etc.)
● tasks (e.g. write an essay, read a short passage)
● skills to be included
● how the test will be scored
● how the score will be reported to students
● how the results will be used in future learning (to provide
washback)
For an example of test specifications for a midterm essay, please see p. 60
in Brown & Abeywickrama (2010).

1. ​a reading quiz

TEST CONTENTS: The test will include a reading passage of a famous

English fable, ​The Boy Who Cried Wolf​, followed by nine questions based
on the story​.

ITEM TYPES: The test will include three multiple-choice items to judge
overall comprehension of the passage, three gapfill items to measure
vocabulary comprehension, and three true/false questions to measure
students’ comprehension of moral lessons in the story and to measure
students’ competence in pragmatics.

TASKS: Tasks will include reading a short story and selecting and filling in
answers directly related to comprehension of that story.

SKILLS: The quiz assesses overall reading comprehension skills,

vocabulary absorption skills (attention to context clues), and pragmatic
skills. These are all skills that are required during the reading process,
regardless of the material.

SCORING: The test items are set up so that each student can easily be
given an overall percentage value accompanied by a letter grade. In
addition, I will give subscores for each individual comprehension skill. Each
section would carry equal weight.

SCORE REPORTING: I would return graded papers to students within the

week so that they could see their score. We would go over the test in class.

WASHBACK: I would indicate the correctness or incorrectness of each test

item by leaving it blank and drawing a red line over the number,
respectively. I would leave qualitative feedback on the papers, making a
mental note of common errors to bring up and address during class
discussion of the test and results. Students would have the opportunity to
ask questions during that time and learn what amendments and
refinements need to be made.

2. ​a grammar unit test

TEST CONTENTS: The test would include a short passage focused on the
English conditional tense with five questions about the tense used in each
clause of the conditional sentence. There would be five more questions
dedicated to what the tense of the clauses indicated about the type of
conditional. It would also include five authentic scenarios that would
require the test-taker to respond with five conditional statements of their
own.

ITEM TYPES: The passage would have five underlined sentences on

which the test-taker would focus. Directions would ask them to identify the
tense in each clause of the sentence and then to next identify the type of
conditional. The next sections would include scenarios which open-ended
questions that required students to formulate their own conditionals.

TASKS: Students will be expected to read, comprehend, identify types of

conditionals and their make-up, and produce conditional sentences.

SKILLS: Students would need reading skills to maneuver the passage.

Comprehension would not necessarily be needed, but students would need
to be able to detect tense in the individual clauses of the conditional
sentence. This would require knowledge of verb tenses. Overall, students
would need reading/writing and comprehension/articulation skills, since the
scenarios would require them to understand the situation and respond
accordingly using the target grammar-focus.

SCORING: The test would not be evenly weighted. The production section
would count for 66.7%. The identification and tense break-down sections
would count for 16.65% each, respectively. The purpose of these types of
percentages would be to give the students partial points where necessary.
For instance, if they got tense right in one clause but not the other, they
would receive some credit. The grade would be expressed in the form of an
overall percentage accompanied by evaluative comments which would tell
each student how to improve.

SCORE REPORTING: I would return graded papers to students within the

week. Evaluative comments would accompany the score and grade.

WASHBACK: The test would reveal the students’ ability or inability to

produce the conditional. It would allow me to compare how well they
produced one aspect of the conditional in relation to another, so I could
give feedback on how to improve in specific areas regarding the
grammar-focus. It would also test the students’ ability to recognize and pick
apart a conditional sentence and their ability to imitate it in their own writing
or speech, an important aspect of language learning. The evaluative
comments that accompanied the score would help them to focus in on
specific areas to improve language production. The production section
would tell me which types of conditionals second-language speakers tend
to shy away from.

3. ​a listening/speaking final exam

TEST CONTENTS: Students would have a pictorial prompt. The teacher

would ask questions about the picture related to overarching themes in the
classroom. The questions will require students to use some of the grammar
components discussed in the class. There would be an oral component that
could be repeated twice that required action on the part of the test-taker to
show comprehension. The final part would be the teacher or a peer partner,
if the student chose, leading the student in a conversation to ascertain if he
could engage.

ITEM TYPES: All test items would be auditory and visual prompts.

TASKS: As stated above, students would need to talk about a pictorial

prompt, engage in a conversation using classroom grammar points, and
demonstrate understanding of audio.

SKILLS: The test would require comprehension of oral feedback and

production in the second language. It would also require some kinesthetic
involvement.

SCORING: Students would receive categorical scores for fluency,

comprehension, and creativity, criteria on which they would know they were
being assessed, and an overall score. One person of would interview while
the teacher assessed. They would have been given a rubric beforehand.

SCORE REPORTING: I would email each student their result, in addition to

posting it in the requires grading profile online. I would allow students to
schedule follow-up sessions to go over the results of the exam.
Immediately after the exam, I would also give oral feedback. All oral exams
would be scored within one week.

WASHBACK: The category scores would tell students of their strengths

and weaknesses. The oral tests would expose receptive or productive
problems. The conversation aspect would tell how well students could
negotiate meaning, articulate, and understand when an interlocutor is
involved.