Choose one of the four communication skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing), and prepare an Annotated Bibliography on the challenges of testing the skill. The challenge may be related to different aspects of assessing the skill from the construct definition (how the skill is defined), using appropriate test materials, setting criteria for assessment (e.g, rating scales) to the scoring and interpretation of performance. You may choose to focus on one of these themes or a combination of them, but please be advised that the main focus of the assignment is on “challenges” as perceived by test developers or test score users.

For more information about this assignment see the assignment information and submission in iLearn. 

This assignment requires you to change your AB (Assignment 1) into a review paper. Use your AB (the introduction, the annotations and reflections, and the conclusion) and write an essay to discuss and highlight the major problems and challenges of assessing the communication skill you have chosen. The AB should provide you with enough content to write the review paper, however, you may want to do further research and add more content if necessary to enhance your review paper. Attend to the comments you received on your AB to improve your second assignment. The structure of the review paper will follow an introduction, body and conclusion as elaborated below.

For more information about this assignment see the assignment information and submission in iLearn. 

Goals:  The goals of this assignment are to provide you with an opportunity to:

• demonstrate your understanding of the relationship between theory and practice in language testing
• evaluate a language test relevant to your own professional context

This is an extension of Assignment 2 and involves an evaluative commentary on a language test of your choice. You may wish to look at a well-known public language proficiency test (such as the IELTS, TOEFL, or Pearson) or you may want to examine a test that is used in the context in which you work.

You may choose to evaluate either the whole test or a single component of it, such as the reading or the speaking module. If you choose to evaluate a large-scale test you will probably find that the latter option is more manageable. Use the six categories in Bachman and Palmer (1996, Chapter 2) of test usefulness framework (authenticity, reliability, validity, practicality, interactiveness, and impact) as a way of organizing your evaluation of the test or its component. You may choose to include all the six features or you may choose some of them depending on the scope and focus of your evaluation.

Both internal (on-campus) and external (distance) students should take part in teaching and learning activities throughout the semester. For internal students, active participation includes classroom attendance, and participation in face-to-face in-class, and online discussion and classroom presentations.

For external students, active participation includes postings in “Forum” in iLearn and discussion of different topics related to the unit, and a group presentation. Each student should have at least 3 postings in iLearn related to the topics of the unit. Only those postings are counted for active participation that is initiated by the student and is not a response to an initiated one. You are encouraged to post a brief report of the papers you find and read on each of the unit topics. Group presentations are another part of active participation.  Students who share similar areas of interest (for example, interested in the same communication skill) can form a group to further discuss their topic and prepare a group presentation to be posted in iLearn.