THE PROPER TESTS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING: A STUDY ON INSTRUCTORS, STUDENTS’ AND RESEARCHERS’ PERSPECTIVE

Authors : Gonca Altmişdört

Pages : 167-186

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Publication Date : 2018-01-04

Article Type : Research

Abstract :As in all education programmes, in foreign language teaching the main aim is to reach the objectives of the programme. In order to have successful in teaching process, measurement and evaluation should be done continuously. Tests are one of the main instruments to evaluate the success of the students and the success of the programmes in language teaching. However, it shouldn’t be forgotten that all the tests are not accepted as the proper instruments to evaluate the students and the programmes. In this study, the main aim is to investigate what features the students and the teachers expect and need in language tests. Besides, in order to have proper tests in language teaching the suggestions and opinions of the students and teachers were searched. Also in the study, with recent literature review new applications and current problems in language testing were scrutinized. In these studies, some new implementations were detected and researchers’ suggestions were submitted. In the study, a test evaluation scale was given to 21 instructors and a survey was given to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade students in a high education institution. The data were analysed and the answers of the teachers and students were compared. According to the results, it is seen that the teachers and the students have some common opinions about the tests. The findings show that although there are some positive sides of the tests, there are some inadequate issues in the tests. At the end of the study, with recent literature review and the findings in the research, some suggestions are submitted to have proper tests in language teaching.
Keywords : Language tests, measurement and evaluation