project proposed but not funded or implemented
An innovative aspect of the foreign language assessment project during the 1999–02 grant cycle was the creation of Web-based tests (WBTs), including both achievement and proficiency tests. Web-based tests that allow the administration and scoring of tests via the Internet greatly increase flexibility, applicability to multiple system platforms, and accessibility to users, while keeping costs low. The project team worked with the Korean section of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures to develop Web-based midterm and final examinations and have begun posting a Web-based Korean proficiency assessment instrument.
The work proposed here is to make the current Korean Web-based assessments more performance-based than is currently the case, despite the many problems that developing performance tests for the Web entails, and to develop Web-based assessments for at least one other language, probably Japanese. Accordingly, during the first year of the grant, we will augment the current Korean Web-based tests to make them more performance oriented. This will attempt to integrate Web-based assessment with more communicative types of language instruction. Specifically, we will examine tests that are more interactive and incorporate item types delivered through such programs as Flash or Shockwave. We will further examine how such assessment approaches can, or should, involve interaction with instructors or other raters. Data from examinees taking these tests will be analyzed and the tests will be revised. Tests for at least one other language, most likely Japanese, will also be developed and placed on the Web. The project will culminate in publication of a monograph on issues in Web-based language test development.
2002-03
- Augment existing web-based tests for Korean to make them more interactive
2003-04
- Continue development of web-based tests, adding a second language (most likely Japanese)
2004-05
- Continue development of web-based tests
2005-06
- Finish writing, send for extenal review, revise and publish a monograph on Web-based Language Test Development