Validity of the achievement written test for non-major, second-year students at economics department

1 Rationale

Today no one can deny the importance of English in life. As the world’s tendency is to integrate so it seems that there’s no boundary among countries, therefore English becomes the global language that people use to communicate with one another. Also, in this computer age, all things in all fields are in English, so it is the only language that any one need to master to understand.
Fully recognized the importance of this global language, most of the schools, colleges and universities in Vietnam consider English as the main, compulsory subjects that students must learn. However, how to evaluate the backwash, and how to measure what they achieve after each semester is extremely necessary but still receive little attention.
Up to now, the process of test analysis after each examination hasn’t been fully invested in terms of time and energy to get specific and scientific results. As a teacher myself, I see that we, teachers at Hanoi Open University (HOU) just stop at experienced level of test making procedure, test administration, test marking procedure and others problems during and after examination. When making training evaluation, we just base on statistic results and give objective comments but do not analyze test quality scientifically and persuasively. Therefore, “Validity of the achievement written test for non-major, 2nd year students at Economics Department, Hanoi Open University” is chosen with the hope that the study will be helpful to the author, the teachers, any one who is concerned with language testing in general and validity of an achievement reading and writing test in particular, and the survey results will participate in improving the test technology at Economics Department, Hanoi Open University (ED, HOU).

2 Scope of the study

To analyze an achievement test is a complicated process. This may consist of a number of procedures and criteria, and the analysis normally will focus on the integrated tests: reading, writing, speaking and listening tests. However, in this study, only the achievement written test (including reading and writing) is concentrated for validity evaluation due to the limits of time, ability and availability of data.
The survey for this study will be carried out to all 2nd year students at ED, HOU.
The researching objects of this study are all the questionnaires and the test results of 2nd year students at ED, HOU.

3 Aims of the study

The study is mainly aimed at examining the validity of the existing achievement test for non major, 2nd year students at ED, HOU. This is supported by other sub-aims:
- To systematize the theory and test analysis procedures, a very important process of test technology.
- To apply test analysis procedures in statistics and analysis test results to find out whether the existing test is valid or not
- To provide suggestions for test designers and test raters.

4 Methods of the study

Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used in this study to examine, synthesize, analyze the results to deduce whether the given test has validity or not and to give advisory comments.
From the reference materials of language testing, criteria of a good test and methods used in analyzing test results, a neat and full theory is drawn out to as a basis to evaluate the validity of the given test used for second year students at ED, HOU. The qualitative method is applied to analyze the results from data collection of the survey questionnaire on 212 second-year students. The questionnaire is conducted to student population to investigate the validity of the test and their suggestions for improvement.
The quantitative method is employed to analyze the test scores. 212 tests scored by eight raters at ED, HOU are synthesized and analyzed.
Each of the methods also provides relevant information to support for the current test’s validity.
5 Design of the study

The research is organized in three main parts.
Part 1 is the introduction which is concerned with presenting the rationale, the scope of the study, the aims of the study, the methods of the study and the design of the study.
Part 2 is the body of the thesis which consists of three chapters
Chapter 1 reviews relevant theories of language teaching and testing, and some key characters in a good language test are discussed and examined. This chapter also reflects the methods used in analyzing test results.
Chapter 2 provides the context of the study including some features about ED, HOU, and the description of the reading and writing syllabus, course book.
Chapter 3 is the main chapter of the study which shows the detailed results of the survey questionnaire and the tests scores. This chapter will go to answer the first research question: Is the achievement reading and writing test valid?
This chapter also proposes some suggestions on improvement of the existing reading and writing test for second-year students based on the mentioned theoretical and practical study (the answer to the next research question: What are suggestions to improve test’s validity?).
Part 3 is the conclusion which summarizes all chapters in part 2, offers practical implications for improvement and some suggestions for further study.

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