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0VALIDITY OF CEFR IN REGARD TO TEST DESIGN AND ITEM WRITING
Xolmatova Nozimaxon Iqbol qizi
English language teacher, Fergana Academic Lyceum of Ministry of Internal of
Affairs, Republic of Uzbekistan
Abstract: Validating language assessment test is the most important stage of test developing process. So that it should not be neglected by item writers and designers. In order to develop valid reliable test, a good item writer should have a number of skills like being proficient at the language use, being creative, thinking critically and paying attention to details.
Key words: CEFR, validity, test design process, accuracy, language proficiency level, test takers, creativity.
CEFR is used in order to assess language proficiency of test takers. And the tasks in CEFR should be designed correctly and accurately. The validity of the test should be examined in every section. CEFR has a standardized description of language proficiency level from A1 to C2 in order to access four language skills of examinees. This means CEFR has content validity.
Validity of the test can be examined in every section of the test. According to Brown's (2010), validity of the test should be taken to consideration firstly. The written part of the test which consists of listening, reading and writing sections can be considered to have face validity. Because, the items of the test are taken from real world. The questions are challenging in order to assess the level of test takers. The directions in the test are clearly given and the time allocation for each section is reasonable according to difficulty level of the test.
The construct validity of the test can be seen writing and speaking sections of the test. Grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, punctuation, coherence are checked. This means that test takers should integrate multiple language skills in order to do the task. In speaking section, oral proficiency of the examinees is checked including
grammatical accuracy, lexical resource and pronunciation. Both writing and speaking sections are carefully assessed using rubrics. In order to strengthen validity of the test, test designers should provide accurate reliable and error-free test items for accessing clear proficiency of the test takers.
In my personal point of view, test design process is time consuming process. Item writers should be patient during test design process. Each section of the test requires different skills from item writers. For instance, when they are going to design reading test they should take into account word count, difficulty of the text and tasks. Designing listening tests is not also easy. Item writers firstly should make up the transcript of the audio and relevant questions for them. After these steps, the transcript of the texts should be recorded. So they should know how many minutes may take to record the written transcript. In designing writing and speaking sections of the test, item writer should think more critically. They may guess test takers' responses beforehand.
Overall, the validity of the any kind of test is considered by item writers. So that, item writer should have a number of skills to produce valid test for test takers.
According to Arthur Hughes's (2003), having deep knowledge about language skills and sub-skills is very important in designing any type of language assessment tests.
Firstly, a good item writer should have strong language proficiency and deep understanding of the language. Being proficient of the language is important to ensure that the questions and texts, texts in the test are clear, concise and error-free. For example, an item writer who is creating reading text must be able to create grammatical and lexical correct sentences and avoid vague phrases and words that may confuse the test takers to understand the meaning of the text.
For creating valid and reliable test items, item writers should have deep, clear knowledge of assessment principles and content knowledge and understand theoretical aspects of the assessment. For instance, when creating listening items, should know balance between simple, moderate and difficult questions.
The next skills are to follow the given guideline to make accurate items. For item writers, specific guideline and requirements are provided for developing each sections of the test. While creating items, each step of the guideline should be followed. If one of them is missed, it affects the quality of the item and it may confuse the test takers to do questions. So, every step of the item writing process should be double checked by item writers.
Another important skill which a good item writer should have is to think critically to develop questions that require student to apply higher-order thinking skills like analyzing, evaluating the given text. For instance, in designing listening tests, the item writer can create gap filling questions based on problem and solution method. In order to fill the questions the test takers should understand problems and their appropriate solutions.
One of the important sub-skills is paying attention to details of the tests. Proficient item writers must pay close attention to every detail when crafting questions and texts to ensure accuracy and validity. Punctuation, spelling mistakes should be avoided. For example, an item writer developing multiple choice reading questions should carefully review each choice for accuracy and clarity before finalizing the item.
Overall, above mentioned required skills for item writing play a crucial role in designing high quality assessment items that effectively measure students' language knowledge and skills.
References:
1. Brown, D.H. (2010). Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices (2nd Edition).
2. White Plains, NY: Longman Pearson. ISBN: 9780138149314
3. Hughes, A. (2003). Testing for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
