Perspective Article
Underestimated Utility: Recording Design Decisions in Language Test Development
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Our designs of language tests understandably focus on the endpoint: a useful test with interpretable results. We should not neglect what precedes that endpoint: the critical phases in the development of the test. We do not reflect enough on the development process, perhaps because we think that this is not worthy of research. Awareness of the stages of test design is useful, however: it pays handsome dividends when the quality of the end product is examined. The wide-ranging scholarly work of Carol Chapelle has focussed, among other issues, on two critically important components of testing language ability: assessing vocabulary knowledge and computer-assisted platforms for taking language tests. Their interaction will be highlighted here. Using a five-phase approach to language test design, this contribution sets out how the intuitive initial solution becomes the prompt to greater deliberation; how the articulated specification of what is being tested leads to greater theoretical defensibility; and how considerations of economy can be accommodated, leading to justifiable technical compromises in devising a quick test of reading levels. The initial solution associated reading ability closely with vocabulary knowledge only. The more deliberate subsequent design sought to overcome some of the limitations of that premise, by enriching the test with the addition of several further task types. The record of these design decisions indicates the rise in language assessment literacy (LAL) among the design team members, and how useful such a design record can be to enhance the quality of the eventual measure.
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Keywords
Language Testing; Test Design; Language Test Development
Author(s) Information
Publisher’s Note
The claims, arguments, and counter-arguments made in this article are exclusively those of the contributing authors. Hence, they do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the authors’ affiliated institutions, or EUROKD as the publisher, the editors and the reviewers of the article.
Acknowledgements
I wish to express my sincere appreciation for the Inter-Institutional Centre for Language Development and Assessment (ICELDA), which made trialing items easier by making its online testing platform available to the test developers, and also to the teachers and their pupils at various schools who have agreed to have their test results analysed for the further refinement of the test. I am especially grateful to the reviewers, who have made helpful suggestions for improving this manuscript. The final version remains my responsibility.
Funding
The test is a commercially developed test, for an client that for this reason remains anonymous.
CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement
Albert Weideman is the first and only author.
Generative AI Use Disclosure Statement
No use has been made of Generative AI.
Ethics Declarations
World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki–Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants
Participation in and data generated by participants were properly cleared with the client beforehand, as well as by the client themselves with their respective schools, and the data were studiously anonymised, along with the exact settings in which the data were gathered. The research did not involve any human for experimental medical research.
Competing Interests
There are no interests to declare in this respect.
Data Availability
Enquiries with the author: albert@lcat.design.