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Languages Testing and Assessment

Glenn Fulcher's comprehensive Resources in Language Testing site at http://languagetesting.info was reviewed in Language Learning & Technology Vol. 5, No. 2, May 2001, pp. 4-7 "ON THE NET Language Testing Resources" by Jean W. LeLoup and Robert Ponterio, who gave it high marks: "the Language Testing Resources site represents a high quality, comprehensive, professional online reference for a wide range of language testing issues of interest to foreign language professionals." Links expand on the following topics: Pages with Assessment and Evaluation Links; Private/Commercial Organizations; Government Sites; Educational Resources Information Center; Associations, Centers, and Councils; Universities; Archives; Ethics and Fairness in Testing; Statistics; Tests Online. There are videoclips here with snippets on the following topics: Reliability; Validity; Test Impact; Test Specifications; Writing; Test Items; Pretesting; Testing Listening; Testing Speaking; Testing Reading; Testing Writing; Statistics; Testing for Specific Purposes (Glenn had me update the URL for this site Oct 5, 2009)
Volume 5, Number 2 of Language Learning & Technology available at http://llt.msu.edu is a Special Issue on "Computer-Assisted Language Testing" and was edited by Irene Thompson
"Grow Your Own: Online Placement Testing" by Maggie Sokolik, University of California, Berkeley and Jim Duber, duber dot com http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/tesl-ej/ej21/int.html gives resources for acquiring existing tests, and tells why you would or would not want to make your own. The authors went the former route and give the steps to creating a 'good' test (useful advice for anyone creating a test, on or offline). They then created the test using WebCT but moved to Flash4. The article includes screen shots of what the test looks like. (posted by Vance Stevens, 24 Nov 2002 on MLI list)
Ruth Vilmi has information on various test sites at: http://www.hut.fi/~rvilmi/LangHelp/Test/ (Viewed May 9, 2002)
At http://www.mdmorrissey.info/profassess.htm can be found a compilation of material on testing recently gleaned from the Internet (Viewed Sept 9, 2006)
"Language Testing" by Kenji Kitao and S. Kathleen Kitao (Last updated on May 17, 1999) http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/test.htm
"Assessment & Evaluation on the Internet" by Liselle Drake & Lawrence Rudner of ERIC/AE: http://ericae.net/intass.htm (Viewed May 9, 2002)
The CTELT Current Trends in English Language Testing Conference takes place each year around May in the United Arab Emirates. One interesting aspect of the conference is that plenaries have for the past several years been streamed online. The 2002 conference website was at http://dbm.hct.ac.ae/public/events/01_02/ctelt2002/index.html

CAMBRIDGE - At the official Cambridge site: http://www.cambridge-efl.org.uk/ click on examinations in the top menu for info on KET, PET, FCE etc. with samples

The Flo-Joe website hs pages are geared towards writing for Cambridge exams (First Certificate in English and Certificate in Advanced English), and different task types (including letters) are posted each week:

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/cae/students/writing/index.htm for Advanced students
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/writing/index.htm for upper-intermediate students
There are also interactive examples of marked students' work that has been sent in: http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/writing/makeover/index.htm and http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/cae/students/writing/makeover/index.htm

ETS

GRE http://www.gre.org/ (GRE homepage - has numerous GRE preparation tips and free downloads)

IELTS

TOEIC

"ESL Online, ESL Dept." at http://www.ouc.bc.ca/ContEd/ce-inter/ONLINEindex.html includes a TOEIC Preparation link (working May 2002)
TOEIC http://www.faceweb.okanagan.bc.ca/toeic/

TOEFL

The official web site of the Test of English as a Foreign Language is here: http://www.toefl.org (Viewed May 9, 2002)
Elsewhere on this site, find a page on TOEFL Preparation exercises

Rongchang Li, Interim Director, The Culpeper Multimedia Language Learning Center, Gustavus Adolphus College, reports:

The W3 Foreign Languages Testing Database Project (http://138.236.40.190/langtest/index.html) [intends] "to make use of our language instructors' resources to create a big language testing database on the Web. Anyone who is willing to share his or her own testing data will have the right to use this database. There are many advantages to have such a big database. A test can be created on the Web, and taken on the Web. Students can get the results immediately. What's more, testing items are also being tested. Item statistics can be automatically recorded into the database so that we know later how difficult each item is. The database will also allow creation of test specifications or blueprints as we accumulate larger numbers of similar test items. With a careful design, such a database can become extremely useful for both language instructors and researchers."

Glenn Fulcher's reaction on LTEST-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU, "this is not the first time that such a project has been attempted. Take a look at the University of Goteborg: http://www.educ.goteborg.se/usam/pforum/elpa/. This site was set up for similar purposes back in September 1995. The introduction says: "The aim of this homepage is first of all to provide ESL/EFL teachers with one instrument in their crucial work of assessing students. This site is meant to be, in due course, a real source of test materials....We expect teachers around the world to contribute to our test bank. Since then, no one has contributed anything. The real issue for your student to face is not how to set the site up, but how to encourage participation/contribution."

Bell English: http://www.bellenglish.com/courses/activities/assessmentTest.asp has online assessment tests which are freely available after registration. There are 5 different tests randomly selected by the software to prevent students learning the tests. The tests take about 15 mins to complete

This is from a CALICO-L list posting, Feb 2006

DIALANG is for use by the general public and can be downloaded from the DIALANG website. Tests are available in Listening, Writing, Reading, Structures and Vocabulary for 14 different languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. A key feature of the DIALANG project is that its tests are closely linked to the Council of Europe's Common European Framework (CEF) of Reference for Languages: http://www.dialang.org/intro.htm

http://www.accuplacer.com was recommended in a 15 Apr 2003 posting to callis-l. "This is a completely computerized on-line assessment consisting of listening, language use, sentence meaning, reading and writing. .... It is an amazing assessment tool, all done on-line. All questions, and even listening scenarios, are automatically adjusted up or down in difficulty depending on whether the student answered the previous question correctly or not. All components are scored and results returned immediately upon completion of the assessment. Even the writing (300-600 word essay) is scored by a computer!!! Amazingly, the computer score is extremely accurate in terms of assigning a score that corresponds to the score descriptors that are provided. If you are in doubt about the essay score assigned by the computer, you can download the student's complete essay and double check it yourself. The program can be adapted to fit any institution's needs in that you can set the parameters of cut-off/threshold scores, and you can set it to assign students to any level that you describe. It can be used to determine both ESL/EFL or undergraduate placement." There is more info on ACCUPLACER at http://www.collegeboard.com/highered/apr/accu/accu.html

Michigan test online - ENGLISH PLACEMENT TEST (EPT) Ordering Info and Price list available at http://www.lsa.umich.edu/eli/ordering.htm

Netlearn Languages has an online level test for the languages it teaches at: http://www.netlanguages.com/demo/test.htm

OUP / UCLES have brought out the Quick Placement Test on CD-ROM, computer-adaptive with calibrated questioning which, according to how the testee responds, determines the subsequent test-items to be answered

Reward CD Rom, goes only up to Upper Intermediate level http://www.reward-net.co.uk/placement.htm

PhonePass http://www.ordinate.com offer a free demo and for-pay versions. You get an 800# and pass code from the website, then call the 800 number to take the speaking test, and retrieve the results from the website. From a 15 Apr 2003 posting to callis-l: "Catherine Ross at U. Conn. is using it in place of the SPEAK, and has done some work showing a good correlation between PhonePass scores and the SPEAK." More info at: http://www.itap.uconn.edu (look under English Policy)

The European Union has developed DIALANG as, among other things, a self-assessment tool for oral speaking: http://www.dialang.org/english/summary.html. Some key features:

diagnostic language tests in 14 European languages
separate tests for reading, writing, listening, grammatical structures, and vocabulary
treats self-assessment as an integral part of language ability; allows the user to choose the language of test administration and feedback
will be available on the Internet free of charge
As of May 2002 the test appears to be in piloting phase; interested institutions may apply to download the Pilot Tool

CARLA (Computer-Assisted Recorded Language Assessment)

TestMaker (Dan Soneson soneson@scsu.ctstateu.edu

ExTemplate (Claire M. Bartlett bartlett@ruf.rice.edu may also be worth considering.

The Quiz Lab and FunBrain Teams, Part of Learning Network: http://www.funbrain.com/teachers. Free, but you can also upgrade now to premium Quiz Lab $29.95: http://www.funbrain.com/teachers/tvindex.html and take a tour of premium Quiz Lab: http://www.funbrain.com/quiztour/

AntiCheat from http://www.wordkitchen.com takes your test (written in MS Word) and scrambles the questions, producing as many versions as you specify. If you are using multiple choice questions, it scrambles the order of the choices. It also produces a matching answer key for each version. (from a posting 29 Sep 2002 to TESLCA-L)

I'm not sure how to place Jeremy Paton's 14 Dec 2002 posting to TESLCA-L; he says it's for TOEIC but the url is to TOEFL and he alludes to development of items for GRE/SAT. I think it's a template, so I'll store this under DIY until I figure out what's going on: "I've just finished a pilot-version of an online TOEIC test using Macromedia Flash, and would really appreciate some feedback. There is currently little else like it on the web, and it allows any user with an internet connection to study English in a highly engaging and interactive format. Due to it's template structure it can also be easily adapted to contain virtually any print-based textbook or test materials you wish, such as ESL textbooks or TOEFL/TOEIC/SAT/GRE tests. Such online textbooks can also retain the same quality and style of design as a print-based book, while taking advantage of the accessibility and interactivity which the Internet presents. ... You can see the Flash template at: http://www.1-language.com/materials/toefl/index.htm "

Webquestions http://www.clever-software.co.uk/webquestions2/ is freeware and creates mixed type webquizzes like this: http://www.prof2000.pt/users/mfrmfr/af15/wq2.html

User friendly form creation tool: http://www.response-o-matic.com. You create the form with code easily adapted from the Response-o-matic site (and store the form on your site). Submit sends the data to the cgi running on the Response-o-matic server, which in turn emails the results to up to two email addresses specified within your code.

http://www.surveyshare.com/, one of Curtis Bonk's sites, free accounts limited to 12 questions.

MSU's Form Mailer http://clear.msu.edu/mailer/intro.html and http://clear.msu.edu/mailer/

Keiko says: If you are not familiar with Dennie's work, you HAVE to check out his Game-o-Matic! http://clear.msu.edu/dennie/matic/

Quiz Center by Discovery.com http://school.discovery.com/quizcenter/quizcenter.html is easy to use and free, allows multiple types of questions, including fill in the blanks, true or false and multiple choice. Once the student takes the quiz, you can have it sent only to the teacher, both the teacher and the student, or just the student

Zoomerang at http://zoomerang.com/Login/index.zgi is a tool for conducting surveys and formulates the results automatically for you. You can see an example at http://users.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/mfo/zoom/results.htm

Dafne Gonzales has placed a report she made for Webheads about different Online Survey Creators here: http://dygonza.esmartweb.com/surveycreators.htm

Teresa Almeida d'Eça has a section on "creating polls/surveys" at: http://www.malhatlantica.pt/teresadeca/webheads/evonline2003/w3-links.htm

Thompson J, 'Embedding technology into language examinations', Active Learning, No. 4, July 1996, CTISS Publications, University of Oxford, ISSN 1357-1125

However, find more in my pages of online or print bibliographies. - Vance

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Languages Testing and Assessment

Last updated: October 5, 2009 (updated URL for Fulcher; previous update May 8, 2006)