Resources

Student Activities

Activity 1.1: Discussing Validity

The notion of validity is central to language testing and educational assessment in general. It is related to the use of test scores and how they impact upon individuals and society, how we go about constructing tests, how we interpret test scores, and how we conduct research. An understanding of validity is therefore central to all language testing activities.

http://www.le.ac.uk/education/testing/ilta/faqs/validity56.rm

Watch this brief video on Validity. The speaker is Professor Bernard Spolsky of Bar Ilan University in Israel. As you are watching consider the following focus questions.

1. What does Spolsky say is the key question we have to ask about what a test measures?
2. According to Spolsky, how can we make a test "more valid"?
3. What are the consequences of "uncertainty" in language testing and life?
4. Is our own intuition a good guide to evaluating validity?

Does Spolsky's view of validity fit in with any of the approaches discussed in Unit A1, or is it very different?

Optional Reading

You may also wish to consult the following reference, in which Spolsky looks at the different traditions of language testing in the United States and Europe. It is important to understand the different histories of language testing in order to see why different validity criteria have been promoted by different test producers.

Spolsky, B. (1995) Measured Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Activity 1.2: Defining Validity

Validity in Testing, Life and Philosophy

We have argued that the concept of validity is widely applicable in life and evaluating everything that we believe. Yet, it is used with different connotations in different contexts, and we must be aware of these.

Click on the link to the tool you will need for this activity.

http://www.edict.com.hk/concordance/WWWConcappE.htm

This is a web concordancer, that allows you to look at word occurrences within a corpus.

Type “validity” into the box labelled “String Search” . From the pull-down menu that says “Select Corpus”, select the LOB Corpus. Press the button labelled “Search for Concordances”.   You will now get a KWIC (Kew Word In Context) concordance for the word “validity”. With what other words or phrases does “validity” collocate? Try searching in other corpora. Does a clear meaning for this word emerge from general usage?

Web Work

Compare your answers with the definition of “validity” that is normally provided in philosophy. Consult the online dictionary Wikipedia to do this, by following this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Validity.

What do you think is the difference in meaning between “validity” as it is used in language testing, its use in every day life, and in philosophy?