Abstract:

The basic unit of any test is the test items. In this workshop the presenter will look closely at the elements that make up good items. The presenter shall describe some of the pitfalls to avoid and the procedures to fallow that will help ensure that many obvious mistakes in the test items are caught before the test is tested.
The information supplied in this workshop will enable teachers to develop, select and refine the items most suitable for testing their students. It serves to help teachers who may or may or may not have testing background, to construct and analyze their own tests or to evaluate those of others.
This workshop describes the process of writing individual test items, their assembly into test papers and the editing which all tests should undergo.

This workshop is planned to be completed following the three given steps:

1. Introduce the theoretical part of Language Testing.
a. Definition of Language Testing
b. Objectives of a good language test
c. Validity and Reliability of a Language Test

2. Introduce the different test types and how to write a better test.
a. Define test items. In this step the presenter will:
i. Explain the importance of designing good test items
ii. Introduce the most common test items:
- Multiple-choice
- True /False
- Matching
iii. Display the most common mistakes in test items.
- Strengths
- Limitations
iv. Show the audiences few examples on how to make the needed changes and how to use the introduced methods.
v. Practice ways of using the items in different tests (Placement tests, achievement tests..etc).

3. Practice making different test items using the introduced methods.
a. The presenter will identify key points on how to write test items for different levels using the method presented.
b. Teachers will practice making different test items that matches their students' abilities.
c. Presenter will test and validate teachers newly acquired skills by working the statistics formulas on the teachers' produced items.

Keywords:

Language Assessment, Validity & Reliability, limitations, statistics formules.