Part 1

Written Report on a Sample Instrument (Individual)

The characteristics of the sample test that I have collected are, this test can
be given within appropriate administrative constraints. It can accurately measure
what it wants to measure, for example, reading and writing skills. This test also,
provides information that is useful for the learner. But, the language use in the test
did not really represent real world language use.
First item is the practicality of the instrument. Practicality of an assessment
refers to the logistical, down to earth administrative issues involved in making, giving
and scoring an assessment instrument. These include the cost, amount of time it
take to construct and to administer, ease of scoring and ease of interpreting or
reporting the results.
From my opinion, the item didnt cost too much to the administration. The cost
for the test items stays within the budgetary limits of the administrations. Not much
budget is needed to print the papers or to produce materials because the amount of
questions was enough to test pupils ability to the chosen skills. (Reading and writing
skills)
Furthermore, in terms of practicality, the test items can be completed by the
test taker within appropriate time allocated. Even the weakest test taker will be able
to complete the test within the allocated time and the brightest ones will not complete
the test too early. This is because, if these happen, it will disturb the flow of the
assessment. For example, pupils will be restless and start to make noise. Then, I
think the test item I have collected is a practical test because it has clear direction for
administrations. Anybody who conducted or do the test will know the specific skills to
be tested in the test. The questions were quite clear to pupils and it can be tested
without any problem.
Secondly, I did some observation to check the authenticity of the instrument.
Authenticity is the degree of correspondence of the characteristics of a given
language test task to the features of a target language task (Bachman & Palmer,
1996)
But, I doubted the authenticity of the instrument that I have collected. The
items are not very authentic which I see as the weakness of the instrument. Form my
opinion, the instrument should be as authentic as possible where it will be used to
test on pupils capability in performing meaningful task to ensure they understand
what they have learned throughout the month or terms. Then, the instrument didnt
contain language that is natural as possible. The language is taken directly from
textbook and pupils are not exposed to the real language usage. For example, the
dialogues use in the instrument didnt really use real world situations which can gives
pupils more room to think in deeper.