The Need for Assessment Literacy among Teachers

The need for teachers' assessment literacy is on the increase due to the increasing responsibilities placed on teachers with regard to assessment. Ongoing classroom assessment requires the teacher to be aware of the technicalities of assessment. Not only that, the teacher needs to know how to design a good assessment for her classroom. This might be too much expectation, considering the fact that teachers do not receive much training in this regard during teacher training, and that time is not abundantly available for a teacher. Unless in-service training and personal interest combined with institutional and peer support work hand in hand, teacher may not be able to do this effectively. Also, leaving the teacher out of the circle of assessment will be further widening the gap between theory and practice in the larger discipline called pedagogy- one of the greatest pedagogical tragedies of all times!

Teacher in Class: Source

The gravity of the fact becomes clearer if we understand that any decision we make at the policy level or administrative level cannot reach the learner without the teachers' sound understanding. So if assessment is well planned and designed by someone other than the teacher, its implementation may not succeed at all, because in the classroom, it is the teacher who has to face the ground reality. If the teacher doesn't understand why the assessment is designed the way it is designed, its implementation may miss the point! Moreover, teacher is the most important element in pedagogy after the learner. It is the teacher who bridges the curriculum objectives and the learner. Therefore, the teacher needs to have a sound understanding of how assessment is designed, implemented and scored.

What works better? One time teacher training or ongoing teacher engagement? Certainly, the latter. It is because ongoing teacher development does not take the teacher away from her teaching context. She can practice and experiment with what she learns in teacher development programmes. The former on the other hand will be a stand alone programme that doesn't connect with teaching contexts or students. It is quite possible that what one learns during a stand alone programme remains unused. For the same reason, it is important that teachers remain active within dynamic professional communities that update themselves about the latest developments in pedagogy. Healthy relationships among teachers can lead to sharing of resources and ideas, and can result in action research with much prospect.

Since teaching and assessment go hand in hand, and assessment feeds back into instruction, a teacher has to have at least the basic know how of assessment. Lack of this understanding will lead to inefficient tests in class, inappropriate interpretation of test scores, and pointless instruction that doesn't reflect in assessment. If teacher has to give quality feedback, she must understand assessment. Hence the importance of assessment literacy.

Teachers should have hands-on experience of identifying learners' learning goals, stating that in clear terms for test development, stating learning outcomes, proposing what authentic assessment is, writing tasks that fit the cultural and social contexts of learners, writing rubrics for assessment, and defining criteria for rating. This can be achieved through practice, while in touch with professional companions, and professional development programmes. How we do it is not as important as the fact that we do it no matter what- because, teacher's awareness of assessment is as important as her awareness of teaching techniques!

Need for focused tasks in TBLT

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) emphasises the primacy of meaning in communication. But communication is primarily lexical. We use words processed as lexis for communication. Therefore, TBLT may just automatize performance of particular tasks through use of communication strategies. Therefore, we need to explain how exchange of meaning becomes useful to development of language when communication of meaning itself is lexical.

This is why we need focused tasks in TBLT. Focused tasks help the learner to focus on language form while communicating meaning. For example, a task could still be communicative when the learner gives multiple instructions to different parties, using certain structures introduced through the task. Such focus on form helps the learner to stretch his/her interlanguage, leading to language development.

Skehan, P. (1996). A Framework for the Implementation of Task-based Instruction. Applied Linguistics, Oxford University Press.

Communicative Tasks for CBSE Class X Skills Assessment

Task 1: Pair discussion task designed to assess candidates’ speaking ability

Help Vijaya

Read the instructions carefully before you begin speaking. You can make notes and use them while discussing. You will get 3 minutes to discuss.

Your friend Preethi’s mother is a bank manager. Recently she is transferred from Delhi to your town. Preethi secured admission in your college, in your course. But she has no idea about the subjects of study and examination pattern in your college. Since classes have already started, and first term examination is approaching, she wants to know more about the subjects you study, their content in short, and the kind of questions that appear in the examination. Share these details with her to help her deal with this situation.

This is a personal information exchange task where test-takers share their own information.

Task 2: A task using ‘performing actions based on listening’

Building Origami Cat Face

Listen to the audio carefully and follow the instructions.

Transcript of audio:

Step 1: Take a square-shaped piece of paper.

Step 2: Fold the paper from corner to corner, diagonally- this is fold 1

Step 3: Fold the it again from corner to corner diagonally- this is fold 2. Press the folds firmly and open fold 2.

Step 4: Fold the top pointy end about ¼ of the way down- this is fold 3.

Step 5: Fold the other two corners upwards at about 5-degree angles- this is fold 4 (draw the angle on board)

Step 6: Turn the paper around and draw eyes, nose, mouth and moustaches. Your Origami cat face is now ready!

This is a very simple task to assess listening skills based on the action that follows.

Task 3: An example reading task to assess discourse structure is given below.

Assessing formal discourse structure [Adopted from (Krishnan, Testing Reading, 2012)]

Read the following paragraph. Then divide it into three paragraphs with the following headings: 1-New Immigration System, 2-Indians May Benefit, 3-Other Foreign-Policies.

U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed a merit-based immigration system. It could benefit highly-skilled Indian workers. But it prevents them from sponsoring their extended families. It is part of an aggressive plan which he said will serve national interest. However, there was no reference to the H-1B visas in the proposal which Mr. Trump sent to Congress on Sunday. It is the most sought after visa by Indian IT professionals. Therefore, it is assumed that Indians would benefit from the new policy. Trump administration has more in their wish list. One of them is overhauling the country’s green-card system. Another is the funding of a controversial border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. A third is said to be a crackdown on unaccompanied minors entering the country.

Task 4: A writing task.

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You have received a new bicycle as a birthday gift. Therefore, you want to sell your old blue coloured bicycle which is in good condition. You recently got it serviced, and replaced both the tyres. Write an advertisement for your school notice board in about 40 words. 

Article: Smartphones and Language Learning by Robert Godwin-Jones

First ELT Textbook Published in India (1797)

The first English Language Teaching (ELT) textbook for Indians in India was published in the 18th century. To be exact, in the year 1797. The title of the book was: "The Tutor". It was written and published by John Miller at Serampore, West Bengal. It was the first book to teach English for those outside Europe. The only known copy of this book is preserved in the library of Calcutta University. See the image of its front page below.

It contained the alphabet, a section on pronunciation, a vocabulary list, a grammar section, practical dialogues (related to riverboat trading), and handwriting practice. A part of the dialogue series is shown in the image below.

Details of the Book

Title: The Tutor 

Full title: Tue Tutor, or a New English and Bengalee Work, Well Adapted to Teach the Natives English

Author: John Miller

Publisher: John Miller

Year: 1797

Place: Serampore, West Bengal, India

Task-based learning in Vygotsky's framework

According to Vygotskian Socio-Cultural Theory (SCT), dialogue is the basis of all learning including language learning. Language Acquisition Device is situated in dialogue, not within one's head according to SCT. Social interaction leads to development of complex intramental activities. That is, what happens between people leads to development of what happens inside oneself. Therefore, we observe that children progress from object-regulation to other-regulation to self-regulation.

In language learning thus, learners first express their new learning (linguistic forms and functions) in interactions with others, and later they internalize them for independent use. Here, tasks have opportunities to help learners interact in various situations and use different language structures and functions. This will equip learners to use these independently later. Therefore, use of language in collaboration with others will lead to use of use of those and more complex language independently. Tasks are therefore tools for developing collaborative learning activities.

Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) implies that there is an actual and potential level of development. It is the potential level that is activated while learner communicates in collaboration with others. Later this potential will be actualized when the learner can independently use complex language. ZPD conceptually looks like the i+1 of Krashen.

In ZPD, the interlocutors create a conducive and comfortable language level and atmosphere where communication takes place. This is what adults do when they take out their child-talk with children. The same is used by teachers in classrooms. It is like an adjustment of levels. There is collaborative construction of discourse or dialogue within ZPD. Tasks can do exactly this. They create an optimum context/zone for communication/language exchange.

For tasks to be able to create ZPDs and promote language development, they must have a meaningful activity in it, participants must interpret the task in similar manner, their goals must be the same, they must have co-ownership of the task's activity and there must be a meaningful outcome to be achieved, which is perceived by the participants.

Reliability and Validity in Language Assessment

Both reliability and validity are important for a language test to be useful.

Reliability

Reliability in other words is consistency. It is like a weighing scale's reliability. A weighing scale must show the same weight of the same object on all occasions. If a test that gives me an A grade today must give me something similar a month from now also. Or a test that gives A grades to a group of students of the same ability must give about the same scores in a few weeks' time. That is, the test must be reliable. If a test gives A grade today, and F (fail) grade tomorrow, then the test is not reliable. If tests are not reliable, they are not useful. They will not provide us with any information about the test-taker. Therefore, our attempts must be to minimize the effects of the potential sources of inconsistency in the test.

Validity

Validity implies the meaningfulness and appropriateness of the interpretations we make based on a test score. Validity is when we are indeed testing what we intend to test. Validity is when we are confidently able to interpret the test score as a representation of the test-taker's underlying language ability we measured in the test. If there is no validity, we cannot generalize our interpretations to the Target Language Use (TLU) domain. If we can't generalize a test score to other domains, it is not very useful. In other words, without validity, tests are useless.

To ensure validity, we must look at the characteristics of the test task and the construct definition. Test task characteristics are important because they must match with the TLU domain tasks' characteristics. They must test the test-takers' language ability. This is possible only when you have defined the construct to be measured in clear terms. 

Relevance of providing Planning Time during language instruction

Task-based language teaching was brought in as a means to manipulate the form-meaning balance in language instruction. Tasks could really focus on one or both of these aspects. To do so, Task-based language teaching has many means like pre-task, mid-task and post-task activities. Planning time is such a pre-task activity that helps focus the attention of learners on particular aspects of language learnt.

Givon (1979) says that there are two modes of speech: syntactic and pragmatic. Pragmatic speech is basic, and is a characteristic of unplanned speech. Syntactic speech is more organised, grammatical, syntactically structured, elaborate in morphology. Planned speech is a characteristic of syntactic speech. This mode leads to more stretching of interlanguage when learners attempt challenging syntax, leading to language development.

Therefore, planning time is argued to be beneficial to language learning.

3 Basic Problems of Language Assessment

The three basic problems of assessment are

1. inference
2. prediction and
3. generalisation.

1. Inference

Inference is what we do with the performance of a test-taker. We make inferences about the language abilities of the test-taker based on how the test-taker has performed on the assessment in question. The problem is that to make this inference, we make a lot of assumptions about language and language performance. We assume that language performance comes from underlying language competence or underlying language abilities. We also assume that language abilities have particular structure, and that different language abilities interact with each other. Based on these assumptions, we design our tests to systematically sample test-taker's language. This sample is used as our raw material to make inferences about the underlying language competence or abilities.

The real problem is that we do not for sure know what is the relationship between performance and abilities/competence or how abilities are structured or how they interact with each other. All these questions are still not satisfactorily answered. 

2. Prediction

Prediction is to say in advance how language abilities will be used in future, in actual situations in real time. A good test will have high potential to predict actual performance. Abilities will interact with other performance conditions like physical conditions, affective factors, etc. during performance. Therefore, prediction has to consider these influences.

The problem is that if a test cannot make accurate predictions or if it makes wrong predictions, the decisions made based on the test will have serious consequences.

3. Generalisation

Generalisation is about applying the prediction to other contexts of language use as well. This is an important quality since a language test must be able to talk about a learner's language use in many situations and language use contexts. Otherwise a test has very limited relevance. Tests generally characterise different contexts so that we know what is different in various contexts. Using this information, we can apply the prediction based on a test to other contexts too.

The problem is when a test doesn't have the capacity to generalise. The test will be highly parochial, and its relevance will be too localised.

A larger problem

Each of the above problems conceptualise language sampling in different ways. Therefore, no single approach to language sampling is possible. With any particular approach, we cannot solve the problems mentioned above. These are the approaches available today which have their own independent focuses.

1. Abilities approach: This approach uses a model of communicative competence. Abilities underlie performance. Therefore this approach tries to build tests to elicit performance based on particular underlying abilities. Here language processes and contexts are treated as secondary extensions.

2. Processing approach: Processing approach gives centrality to language processing. Therefore, real-time language processing in communication is the focus of assessment. Tests will assess how well test-takers can handle the pressures of communication online. In this approach, abilities play only a secondary, service role. Therefore, assessment will focus on a sampling framework that looks at performance conditions. Generalisation thus will be to other language use contexts that use the same kind of language processing only. Again, this is limited.

3. Contextually driven approach: In this approach, difference between different contexts is the focus. Assessment is focused on the characteristics of contexts. Test sampling therefore focuses on covering a range of contexts so that generalisation of prediction is meaningful to those contexts.

Solution to these problems

1. Develop a model of underlying abilities

2. Develop direct performance tests combining performance and contextual problems

The first solution could be systematic in portraying language abilities. This would align with empirical methods used today in measuring abilities. Therefore, this approach could further the existing scholarship in the field. The process would be defining language constructs, then gather data to assess constructs, then assemble effective tests.

Its problem is that is presents a static picture of proficiency. Since it assumes that there are underlying abilities, and is trying to uncover them, it is a difficult endeavour especially because we are not sure of what these underlying abilities are, or what are their connections with performance!

The second solution has greater predictive quality because of the restricted situations it deals with. It emphasises context validity by looking into characteristics of contexts and performance. 

But the problem is that it deals with limited number of contexts or domains. Validation depends on needs analysis, which in turn depends on assessment, and vice versa. It works pretty much like ESP (English for Specific Purpose) tests. Generalisation is limited. Moreover, there is little underlying theory to explain the differences in contexts and performance in relation to abilities.

Therefore, the former 'interactive ability' model seems to be the better choice in terms of prediction and generalisation capacities. 

International English Language Testing System (IELTS)

IELTS examination is conducted by the British Council. The test score is used for the purposes of Study, Migration and Work. It’s a high stakes gatekeeping examination that screens people for the aforementioned purposes. It measures the English language proficiency of people who want to work or study in an English speaking country. It awards one of nine grades to test-takers, based on their performance. The test is available in two separate versions- one for academic purposes, and another for general training. IELTS accepts all native speaker versions of English- British, North American, New Zealand and Australian English. Assessment covers all four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing).  The test promises to avoid biases through careful planning and execution. The test can be taken at any test centre across the world on about 50 different dates a year.

IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training versions
The IELTS Academic version is for people who wish to pursue higher education or to register for professional services in an English speaking country. The test content is academic in nature. The General Training version of the test is for those who go to an English speaking country for intermediate education, work experience or some training programme. Australia, Canada, US and UK take this test as the criterion for allowing migration. The test content is designed to test basic survival skills in everyday living situations.

The test is organized as two parts on two days. Listening, reading and writing tests will be completed on the same day in a 2 hours and 45 minutes’ continuous test. Speaking test is conducted within two weeks before or after this according to the plan of the test centre.
IELTS Listening

Listening test is for 30 minutes. There will be four recordings. Two of them will be on everyday social contexts- a conversation and a monologue. The other two will be on academic subjects or educational context- a conversation and a monologue. Assessment will be based on factual information, opinion and attitudes of speakers, purpose of utterances grasped and the ability to grasp development of ideas. There will be 40 questions. MCQs, matching, plan/map/diagram labelling, form/note/table/flow-chart/summary completion, sentence completion, etc. are the types of tasks available. Each question carries one mark.

MCQs will have three or more options to choose from. Global comprehension or comprehension of specific points is used to test a wide range of skills. Matching questions test the candidate’s abilities to relate and connect facts in the listening passage, to listen for details, to follow a conversation, etc. Planning, mapping and diagram-labelling questions assess candidate’s abilities to understand and relate descriptions to visual representation, to follow spatial directions, locations, etc. Questions that use form/note/table/flow-chart and summary completion test candidate’s comprehension and attention to details. In a given outline, candidates will have to fill in the required information. In this type of questions, the instructions are crucial and have to be strictly followed to avoid negative marking. Sentence completion intents to test the candidate’s ability to identify key information in a listening text. They will have to complete the given sentence using information from the listening passage. A word limit is given and has to be strictly adhered to. Short answer questions test candidate’s ability to comprehend factual information from listing. Again, word limit applies here. Assessment is done by trained and certified markers and analysed by Cambridge English Language Assessment.

IELTS Reading
Reading has two kinds of tests- Academic reading and General Purpose reading.

IELTS Academic Reading
Academic reading test is for one hour, and has forty questions. Candidates are given three reading passages. Task types used are multiple choice, identifying information, identifying the writer’s views/claims, matching information, matching headings, matching features, matching sentence endings, sentence completion, summary completion, note completion, table completion, flow-chart completion, diagram label completion and short-answer questions. Texts used are selected from books, journals, newspapers and magazines on general interest topics. Passages can have narrative, descriptive, or discursive/argumentative style. Texts may contain logical arguments and non-verbal information. Questions are given in the same order as information appears in the text. For MCQs, four, five or seven alternatives will be given. They test global and local comprehension. Identifying information and writer’s opinion, candidates prove their ability to locate and recognize information conveyed in the text. Opinion tasks are used with argumentative tests. Matching information tests candidate’s ability to identify specific information where matching headings tests the ability to identify main /supporting ideas. Matching questions test candidate’s ability to relate information. For this, skimming, scanning and reading for detail are necessary skills. Matching sentence endings tests candidate’s ability to understand main ideas within sentences by selecting the best option to complete the given sentence. There will be more options than the number of questions raising the level of challenge. Sentence completion questions test candidate’s ability to locate specific details in a text. Completion of summary/note/flow-chart/table asks candidates to complete the given summary, etc. with information from the text. Understanding of main ideas, collocation, etc. are tested with this type of tasks. Diagram labelling asks candidates to label the given diagram based on the text. Understanding of detailed description and ability to transform information into other forms are tested with this type of tasks. Short answer question test candidate’s ability to locate specific information within the text.

IELTS General Purpose Reading
There are three sections in this one-hour general purpose reading test. Maximum score is forty marks. The first section has two or three short texts. It tests candidate’s social survival skills to retrieve information from notices, tables and advertisements. The second section is to test candidate’s skills in workplace survival. Materials used will be like job descriptions and staff training materials. The third section involves general reading with more complex structures. Descriptive and instructive materials of general nature are selected. The types of questions are the same in Academic Reading test. The difference is in the materials used which raise or lower difficulty level of the test.

IELTS Academic Writing
This is a one-hour test with two questions to be answered. First question is to describe some visual information (charts, tables, diagram, device or process) in their own words, and second question is to respond to a point of view or argument or problem. The first answer expects the use of academic or semi-formal neutral style including most relevant information from the given data. About 150 words must be written in about 20 minutes in sentences (not as broken sentences, or notes). The second answer must be focused and relevant to the question. About 250 words are expected in about 40 minutes.
Each task is assessed independently by certified examiners who are approved by British Council. Performance descriptors are clearly stated. First question is assessed on the criteria of task achievement (how well task-requirements are fulfilled), coherence and cohesion (logical sequencing and linking of ideas and fair use of cohesive devices), lexical resource (range and accuracy of vocabulary use) and grammatical range and accuracy. Second question is assessed on the same criteria except for that of task completion. It is replaced by task response which sees how the candidate develops a position in relation to the given question, how ideas are supported by evidence, etc.

IELTS General Training Writing
Like in Academic Writing, here too we have two writing tasks. The first task is to respond to a situation in the form of an informal, semi-formal or formal letter in at least 150 words in about 20 minutes. Common day to day situations will be presented. The skills needed would be asking or giving factual information, expressing likes, dislikes, needs and wants, and making requests or suggestions. Test takers’ ability to write standard letters, organize and link information appropriately, cohesively and coherently is tested. The second task is to respond to a point of view or argument or a problem. It requires at least 250 words, and candidates can take about 40 minutes. Answering might involve providing factual information, presenting a solution, justifying an opinion or an argument, evaluating an evidence, etc. General topics are used. Answering requires the use of more abstract and complex ideas than task 1. Irrelevance and short text would attract negative marks.

Assessment criteria and performance descriptors are the same as in Academic Writing test.

IELTS Speaking 
Speaking test is an oral interview with an examiner. The test is recorded for evaluation and quality maintenance. It lasts about 14 minutes. There are three parts with specific functions.

Part 1 is introduction and interview. Test taker is asked his/her name, details about family, and other familiar everyday topics to put him/her at ease and to introduce them to each other. Ability to speak of everyday topics, state opinions and experiences are tested in this part. This part takes four to five minutes.

Part 2 takes about three to four minutes. But this time, the candidate will have to speak on a given topic in detail. Candidate prepares for a minute, speaks for two and then answers interviewer’s questions. This part tests the candidate’s ability to speak coherently at length about a topic without prompts, using appropriate language. Candidate may have to speak about his/her personal experiences also.

Part 3 is a discussion about the same topic in part 2 in a general, but deeper manner. The focus of the test is on the ability to express and justify opinions and to analyse, speculate about and discuss issues. This takes four to five minutes.

Marking is done by certified IELTS examiners. Performance descriptors are prepared. Fluency refers to the ability to speak fairly continuously at a fair rate to make coherent and connected speech. Coherence refers to logical sequencing, marking stages of a discussion, narration, argument and use of cohesive devices. Lexical resource means range and accuracy of appropriate choice of vocabulary. Ability to circumlocute is also noted. Grammatical range and accuracy refers to appropriate use of grammatical resources. Length and complexity of spoken sentences, use of subordinate clauses, range of sentence structures, number of errors made and their effect on communication are the measures of grammatical ability. Pronunciation is measured by the amount of strain listener has to put in, amount of unintelligible speech and influence of L1.

Figure 1- IELTS Score band

The final score is generated by averaging individual test scores of the four skills. It ranges from 0 to 9 as shown in Figure 1. The test score has a validity of two years. 

IELTS claims to be fair to candidates of all nationalities, cultural backgrounds, genders or special needs by trialling the test questions extensively with people from various backgrounds all over the world. It assesses language skills, not specialist skills. It is not based on any particular text book or syllabus, but on general knowledge of English language and its use.  To ensure quality and safety, IELTS has established procedures to verify candidate’s identity. The tests are unique- no candidate gets the same test twice. Assessment involves double marking and has other security features. Results are available online.

The test development has the following stages.
a. Commissioning of language specialists to work on the test. Test development starts with test specifications and characteristics of four IELTS components. This team of specialists guides test writers by providing information on specific requirements, approach to test writing, and selection of appropriate materials.
b. Pre-editing is the stage where initial materials submitted by test writers are edited for topic, level of language, style, level and focus of task. Suggestions for revision are given to the writers.
c. Based on pre-editing feedback, test material is worked on and resubmitted. This material is either sent for further revision or for pre-testing.
d. Pre-testing stage gives the test to representative groups of test-takes from around the world. Information on item difficulty and ability to distinguish between strong and weak candidates is gathered. Based on this information, decisions are made whether to accept or not to accept particular materials for testing.
e. Standards fixing stage involves testing new listening and reading materials with representative test-taking groups. This ensures that the difficulty levels of the materials are appropriate to provide same measures of language ability in all band scores. Once this is done, materials are ready for use in tests.
f. Test construction and grading is the final stage. Papers for all four tests are constructed. Test construction is based on item difficulty (mean of all items and that of individual items), range of skills tested, balance of task types, range of cultural perspectives and range of voices and accents in the listening versions. Data from tests is collected to ensure accurate grading and to feed into quality improvement.

A Framework to describe Language Ability

Bachman and Palmer (1996) discusses the need to have a clear framework to talk about language ability. Since we use tasks in test in order to make inferences about test takers' language abilities, or decisions about their future, we need to demonstrate how test tasks correspond to language use tasks in real life. To do this we need a framework that could efficiently and clearly describe language task characteristics, test task characteristics, test taker characteristics and language user characteristics.

What is language use?
Language use is the creation and interpretation of meaning in discourse by an individual, or dynamic and integrated negotiation of intended meanings between two individuals. It involves multiple interactions, and is complex. It involves multiple language use situations including testing situation. Since language use is made up of interactions, we need an interactional framework.

As we can see in the figure, the inner circle has characteristics of the individual, outer circle has those of tasks and settings. They interact in language use. Thus the need for an interactional framework.

Individual characteristics are 

• personal characteristics like age, sex, nationality, resident status, native language, level and type of general education, type and amount of preparation or exposure to the given test, etc.
• topical knowledge: real world knowledge. They are knowledge structures in long term memory. This information is used by language users in the task. Some tasks presuppose certain kinds of topical knowledge.
• affective schemata: It is the affective or emotional correlate of topical knowledge. On presentation of the task, test takers assess the task using this. Affective responses are determined by affective schemata and task characteristics. 
• Language ability: The definition of language ability needs to be context specific. There is no universal definition. Our inferences will be based on this definition. This definition is known as 'CONSTRUCT DEFINITION'. The model of language ability presented here has two components. They are: 1. Language Knowledge and 2. Strategic Competence.

1. Language Knowledge

Language knowledge is what is used by strategic competence to create and interpret language discourse. It has two components: Organisational knowledge and Pragmatic knowledge. They are described in the following diagram from Bachman and Palmer (1996).

2. Strategic Competence

It is the set of metacognitive components or strategies. The elements are goal setting, assessment and planning as can be seen from the figure below from Bachman and Palmer (1996). 

 

How is metacogntive strategies used in language use and language test? The following diagram from Bachman and Palmer (1996) will tell us. 

Language Skills
Traditionally, language skills meant the four language skills- listening, speaking, reading and writing. The new understanding suggested by Bachman and Palmer is that language skill is situated in particular contexts, in specific tasks. it is not part of language ability, but is a contextualised realisation of language ability to use language in specific language use tasks. Therefore, they urge us not to think of language performance in terms of 'skills', but in terms of specific tasks or activities. Therefore, 'skill' can be better seen as a combination of language ability and task characteristics.
Advantage of this view
The advantage of this view is that the above framework can be used to design new tasks, or select existing tasks for assessment using a checklist of language abilities. See the checklist below.

This summary is from Bachman and Palmer (1996). I believe this summary is useful to you as a test designer and test user.

Characteristics of Tasks for Language Tests

Like all language learning and teaching tasks, language test tasks also have characteristics. Yes. But why are we talking about task characteristics in the context of tests? We are talking about the characteristics of test tasks for the following reasons.

Uses of Task Characteristics

• Knowing the characteristics of tasks will help us link test and non-test tasks better. That is, if we know the characteristics of a task, we will be able to see if test tasks reflect non-test tasks. In other words, we could ensure that the task we use in a test is much like a task in real life situations. 
• Knowing the characteristics of tasks will give us information about what language ability of the test-taker is engaged while performing test/non-test tasks.
• Knowing the characteristics of tasks will help us establish authenticity of test tasks. If the test task characteristics correspond to Target Language Use (TLU) task characteristics, we have an authentic test task.
• If we know task characteristics, we will be able to control them while designing test tasks.

Test must be a clear, transparent process. In testing, it is important that the test taker must understand how to perform, what performance is expected, how the performance will be rated and how the result will be used. 

In order to talk about tasks characteristics in the context of language assessment, we must first define language use tasks. Language use tasks are the tasks used in language tests to gather information about the test-taker's language abilities. They are situated in particular contexts, goal oriented and involve active participation of test taker/s. 

TLU domain is the set of language use tasks that the test-taker might encounter outside the testing situation, to which we want to generalize our inferences about language abilities/skills. 

For our purposes, we can look at language use as a set of language use tasks, and language test as a procedure to elicit language use instances from which inferences can be made about test-taker's language abilities. 

Characteristics of Test Tasks

Task characteristics have very clear influence on task performance. When our intention is to elicit best performance from test-takers, we ought to consider task characteristics so that the test tasks are best suited to elicit their best performance. Especially when each test task is a bundle of characteristics, we need to have a framework for clear understanding. Bachman and Palmer (1996) proposes the following framework to understand and use task characteristics for test development and design.

The framework intends to help us base test tasks on TLU tasks, ensure comparability of test and non-test tasks, and ensure authenticity. The elements of the framework are:

1. Setting

Setting implies physical circumstances. It has three elements.

• Physical settings (place, light, furniture, etc.), 
• Participants (administrators, other participants in group tasks, etc.) and 
• Time of task (conducted at what time, when test-takers are fresh/tired, etc.)

2. Test Rubric

Test rubric talks about structure and procedures of the test. Elements are:

• Instructions: explicit so that test-taker is informed how to take the test, how it is scored, and how scores are used; Language of instruction, its presentation and specification of procedures must be conducive. 
• Structure: how parts are put together to form the entire test.
• Time allotment for each item, and the entire test.
• Scoring method: Criteria of correctness, scoring procedure and explicitness of both of these must be informed clearly.

3. Characteristics of Input

Elements are:

• Format
• Channel- aural, visual or both
• Form- language, non-language or both
• Language- native, target or both languages
• Length of input texts
• Type of input- item or prompt
• Degree of speededness- how fast the testee must process the input
• Vehicle- how the input is delivered: live, reproduced or both
• Language of input- organisational (grammar, vocabulary, syntax, morphology, etc.) and pragmatic (functional and sociolinguistic) characteristics, and topical (personal, cultural, social information) characteristics.

4. Characteristics of expected response

Elements are:

• Format
• Type of response expected: selected, limited production or extended production
• Degree of speededness- time available/needed to process
• Language- native, target or both languages

5. Relationship between Input and Expected Response

Elements are: 

• Reactivity: how input or response directly influences subsequent input/responses
• reciprocal tasks: with an interlocutor- has feedback and interaction
• non-reciprocal tasks: no feedback or interaction
• adaptive tests: new development. Subsequent tasks are varied in difficulty depending on previous response
• Scope of relationship: The amount of language to be processed in order to respond as expected
• broad scope- like in a prompt question
• narrow scope- needs to process only limited amount of available input.
• Directness of relationship: whether expected response is based directly on input or also on other background information/knowledge
• Direct
• Indirect

Application of this Framework: To compare TLU and test task characteristics, and to create new tasks by assembling different task characteristics.

Summary from Bachman and Palmer (1996)