What is Validity?
by Evelina Galaczi
July 17th,2020

The fundamental concept to keep in mind when creating any assessment is validity. Validity refers to whether a test measures what it aims to measure. For example, a valid driving test should include a practical driving component and not just a theoretical test of the rules of driving. A valid language test for university entry, for example, should include tasks that are representative of at least some aspects of what actually happens in university settings, such as listening to lectures, giving presentations, engaging in tutorials, writing essays, and reading texts.

Validity has different elements, which we are now going to look at in turn.

Test Purpose – Why am I testing?

We can never really say that a test is valid or not valid. Instead, we can say that a test is valid for a particular purpose. There are several reasons why you might want to test your students. You could be trying to check their learning at the end of a unit, or trying to understand what they know and don't know. Or, you might want to use a test to place learners into groups based on their ability, or to provide test takers with a certificate of language proficiency. Each of these different reasons for testing represents a different test purpose.

The purpose of the test determines the type of test you're going to produce, which in turn affects the kinds of tasks you're going to choose, the number of test items, the length of the test, and so on. For example, a test certifying that doctors can practise in an English-speaking country would be different from a placement test which aims to place those doctors into language courses.

Test Takers – Who am I testing?

It’s also vital to keep in mind who is taking your test. Is it primary school children or teenagers or adults? Or is it airline pilots or doctors or engineers? This is an important question because the test has to be appropriate for the test takers it is aimed for. If your test takers are primary school children, for instance, you might want to give them more interactive tasks or games to test their language ability. If you are testing listening skills, for example, you might want to use role plays for doctors, but lectures or monologues with university students.

Test Construct – What am I testing?

Another key point is to consider what you want to test. Before designing a test, you need to identify the ability or skill that the test is designed to measure – in technical terms, the ‘test construct’. Some examples of constructs are: intelligence, personality, anxiety, English language ability, pronunciation. To take language assessment as an example, the test construct could be communicative language ability, or speaking ability, or perhaps even a construct as specific as pronunciation. The challenge is to define the construct and find ways to elicit it and measure it; for example, if we are testing the construct of fluency, we might consider features such as rate of speech, number of pauses/ hesitations and the extent to which any pauses/hesitations cause strain for a listener.

Test Tasks – How am I testing?

Once you’ve defined what you want to test, you need to decide how you’re going to test it. The focus here is on selecting the right test tasks for the ability (i.e. construct) you're interested in testing. All task types have advantages and limitations and so it’s important to use a range of tasks in order to minimize their individual limitations and optimize the measurement of the ability you’re interested in. The tasks in a test are like a menu of options that are available to choose from, and you must be sure to choose the right task or the right range of tasks for the ability you're trying to measure.

Test Reliability - How am I scoring?

Next it’s important to consider how to score your test. A test needs to be reliable and to produce accurate scores. So, you’ll need to make sure that the scores from a test reflect a learner's actual ability. In deciding how to score a test, you’ll need to consider whether the answers are going to be scored as correct or incorrect (this might be the case for multiple–choice tasks, for example) or whether you might use a range of marks and give partial credit, as for example, in reading or listening comprehension questions. In speaking and writing, you’ll also have to decide what criteria to use (for example, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, essay, organisation in writing, and so on). You’ll also need to make sure that the teachers involved in speaking or writing assessment have received some training, so that they are marking to (more or less) the same standard.

Test Impact - How will my test help learners?

The final – and in many ways most important – question to ask yourself is how the test is benefitting learners. Good tests engage learners in situations similar to ones that they might face outside the classroom (i.e. authentic tasks), or which provide useful feedback or help their language development by focusing on all four skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking). For example, if a test has a speaking component, this will encourage speaking practice in the classroom. And if that speaking test includes both language production (e.g. describe a picture) and interaction (e.g. discuss a topic with another student), then preparing for the test encourages the use of a wide range of speaking activities in the classroom and enhances learning.

Adapted from: https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/blog/what-is-validity. Acesso em: 15 dez.2023.

TEXT I

Is English language teaching for you? A guide to a new career

Marie Therese Swabey

June 14,2021

Whether you’re just starting out or thinking of a career change, teaching English as a foreign language is one of the most rewarding professional journeys you can embark on.

In English language teaching, there is a lot of career potential. As you develop your skills and take on more responsibilities, you can enjoy a long-term career. Many professionals become senior teachers or teacher trainers, or move into management or materials writing.

Why become an English language teacher?

There are lots of reasons you might want to become an English language teacher. For a start, you can make a real difference in people’s lives. According to a 2019 survey by Wall Street English,18% of professionals who have learned English report that they feel happier at work; 12% say they feel happier in general; and half of English speakers earn 25% more because of their language skills.

Moreover, English language teaching is an immensely flexible profession. You can decide whether to take a public or private job, or offer lessons on your own. Your working conditions are flexible too. You might prefer to work in a local school or academy, but many English language teaching jobs also allow you to work online from home. And if you’re feeling adventurous, there are lots of opportunities to live and work abroad, in a new country and culture. If you do travel further afield, you might even learn a new language of your own.

English language teaching is a career that encourages creativity. You’ll become an expert at designing lessons and making learning materials to meet the needs of your students. Best of all ... it’s fun! You spend your day with interesting, engaging people who are keen to learn. What could be better than that?

What do English language teachers do every day?

It probably goes without saying that language educators teach students English on a day-to-day basis. But there are plenty of other aspects to the job as well.

English language teachers assess their learners through quick tests and official exams. They use this information to define learning objectives, and then plan courses and classes that meet their students’ needs.

Language teachers use a range of coursebooks and English language teaching materials, including a variety of audio, visual and digital tools. At the same time, they find and create teaching and learning materials of their own.

In the process of developing learners’ reading, listening, speaking andwriting abilities, teachers also help students develop confidence in presenting and communicating ideas. Furthermore, language teachers encourage students to develop important 21st century skills, such as creativity, collaboration, leadership, autonomous learning and adaptability. These skills are transferable and will help learners in many areas throughout their lives.

What do you need to become an English language teacher?

Being a good English teacher requires more than just being able to speak the language fluently. You’ll also need a comprehensive knowledge of English grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary, combined with excellent communication skills. Teachers of young learners will also need to have an understanding of how to teach engaging, effective classes to children.

It helps if you are comfortable speaking in front of other people, managing groups of learners, and able to plan and organise your time. And it’s important to have a friendly, sympathetic nature and a good degree of cultural sensitivity. After all, you’ll be working with people from all over the world and all walks of life.

Where can you teach?

There are opportunities to teach the English language almost everywhere. For example, you can teach English in an Englishspeaking country such as the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or Ireland. You’ll find many private and public programmes and classes for people who have come to work or study, and who need to improve their English.

Alternatively, you can teach English in schools and universities in countries where English is the official language – but not always how people communicate on a daily basis. Nigeria, Malta, India and Sierra Leone are examples. You might also prefer to teach in non-English-speaking countries, where you’ll have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the local culture and learn a new language too.

In terms of teaching environments, there are opportunities to teach in private academies, public schools, universities, offices, private homes and online.

Who do you teach?

There is an extensive list of people who want to learn to speak English. Many teachers start out with a variety of class types to find out which they like best. Your options include (but are not limited to):

• • adults in private groups or one-to-one classes
• 
  
• • adults in language schools, colleges or universities
• 
  
• • professionals such as business people, medical professionals, pilots, etc. who require English for a specific purpose
• 
  
• • students who are preparing for an official exam
• 
  
• • people who have moved to an English-speaking country and need to improve their English
• 
  
• • young learners in one-to-one classes or groups, or online
• 
  
• • young learners in private language schools, or in secondary/ primary schools.

Adapted from: https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/blog/is-english-language-teachingfor-you. Accessed on May 2,2024

Characteristics of a good test

In order to judge the effectiveness of any test, it is sensible to lay down criteria against which the test can be measured, as follows:

Validity: a test is valid if it tests what it is supposed to test. Thus it is not valid, for example, to test writing ability with an essay question that demands specialist knowledge of history or biology — unless it is known that all students share this knowledge before they do the test.

A particular kind of ‘validity’ that concerns most test designers is face validity. This means that the test should look, on the ‘face’ of it, as if it is valid. A test which consisted of only three multiple choice items would not convince students of its face validity however reliable or practical teachers thought it to be.

Reliability: a good test should give consistent results. For example, if the same group of students took the same test twice within two days — without reflecting on the first test before they sat it again — they should get the same results on each occasion. If two groups who were demonstrably alike took the test, the marking range would be the same.

In practice, ‘reliability’ is enhanced by making the test instructions absolutely clear, restricting the scope for variety in the answers. Reliability also depends on the people who mark the tests. Clearly a test is unreliable if the result depends to any large extent on who is marking it. Much thought has gone into making the scoring of tests as reliable as possible.

(Jeremy Harmer. The practice of English language teaching.2007. Adaptado)

How monks helped invent sign language

For millennia people with hearing impairments encountered marginalization because it was believed that language could only be learned by hearing the spoken word. Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, for example, asserted that “Men that are deaf are in all cases also dumb.” Under Roman law people who were born deaf were denied the right to sign a will as they were “presumed to understand nothing; because it is not possible that they have been able to learn to read or write.”

Pushback against such ideas began in the 16th-century, with the creation of the first formal sign language for the hearing impaired, by Pedro Ponce de León, a Spanish Benedictine monk. His idea to use sign language was not a completely new one. Native Americans used hand gestures to communicate with other tribes and to facilitate trade with Europeans. Benedictine monks had used them to convey messages during their daily periods of silence. Inspired by the latter practice, Ponce de León adapted the gestures used in his monastery to create a method for teaching the deaf to communicate, paving the way for systems now used all over the world.

Building on Ponce de León’s work, another Spanish cleric and linguist, Juan Pablo Bonet, proposed that deaf people learn to pronounce words and progressively construct meaningful phrases. Bonet’s approach combined oralism – using sounds to communicate – with sign language. The system had its challenges, especially when learning the words for abstract terms, or intangible forms such as conjunctions like “for, ” “nor, ” or “yet.”

In 1755 the French Catholic priest Charles-Michel de l’Épée established a more comprehensive method for educating the deaf, which culminated in the founding of the first public school for deaf children, in Paris. Students came to the institute from all over France, bringing signs they had used to communicate with at home. Insistent that sign language needed to be a complete language, his system was complex enough to express prepositions, conjunctions, and other grammatical elements.

Épée’s standardized sign language quickly spread across Europe and to the United States. In 1814 Thomas Gallaudet went to France to learn Épée’s language system. Three years later, Gallaudet established the American School for the Deaf in his hometown in Connecticut. Students from across the United States attended, and they brought signs they used to communicate with at home.American Sign Language became a combination of these signs and those from French Sign Language.

Thanks to the development of formal sign languages, people with hearing impairment can access spoken language in all its variety. The world’s many modern signing systems have different rules for pronunciation, word order, and grammar. New visual languages can even express regional accents to reflect the complexity and richness of local speech.

(Ines Anton Rayas. www.nationalgeographic.com.28.05.2019. Adaptado)

Text 4 (for questions 42,43,44,45, and 46)

Social networks

Going into the small room at the end of the corridor, Roberta sat down _______ ¹ the computer. It was the computer she had bought when her old one’s hard disk had started to go wrong. Her new computer was a laptop with a lot of extra features and she needed it for her online work _______ ² her students. Roberta had started to worry that her students would be bored unless she used modern technology in her teaching.

She turned_______ ³ the switch at the back of her computer. She looked at the email messages waiting for her answer, but she ignored them. Then she looked at the homework posted on a special site she created for the students, but she didn’t feel like correcting it. Instead she went to her favorite social network site and looked at the news about her friends. She sent messages to her favorite people and she had many online conversations _______ ⁴ teaching and other things. She posted some new messages on her own web page and then watched a film clip on a video site which her friend had told her about.

_______ ⁵ now, it was late and she realized that she had spent too much time talking to her friends online. She was very tired. She would have to do all her work in the morning.

(HARMER, J. Essential Teacher Knowledge: core concepts in English language teaching, p.42. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited,2012. Adaptado.)