What we Think of Tests: A Critical Evaluation

In a time when testing is coming increasingly under scrutiny (for example, Paran and Sercu, 2010; Küçük and Walters, 2009) it becomes ever more important to get a clear idea of how testing affects teachers and what attitudes and beliefs they have on the subject with an aim of trying to see if they are critically aware of what they are doing. The literature on testing refers to aspects that we must bear in mind when preparing methods of evaluation in the EFL field, such as validity, reliability, authenticity, criteria to be used, as well as a test being user and marker friendly (Alderson, et al., 1995; Bachman,1990; Bachman and Palmer, 2010; Douglas, 2010; Fulcher and Davidson, 2007; Heaton, 1988; Hughes, 1989; McNamrarra, 2000; Weir, 1993; Weir, 2004). This work investigated three different groups of people involved in EFL in the south of Italy: a group of secondary school teachers, a group of aspiring secondary school teachers and a group working in an Italian university who deal with testing during their work. A questionnaire was used to try to elicit the attitudes and beliefs of people in these groups concerning this problem of evaluation. This was done by having the people involved answer questions concerning the types of test they use, their reasons for using them and their assessment of tests they are familiar with. They were also asked to critically reflect on what they do as test practitioners. This article will show the results of this research and discuss some of the conclusions that can be drawn from it.