Characteristics of Good Reading and Listening Tests

Abstract

Assessment is an essential component of every language acquisition process. It gives information on people's language abilities, which has significant implications for test takers and influences their academic and professional destiny. As a result, such high-stakes testing must be successful for test takers and all those involved that use the exam outcomes. Language tests are often of poor quality and do not correctly assess what they are designed to evaluate, according to testing literature. Several research studies have proven that test tasks impact test taker performance, prompting testing specialists to focus their efforts on improving the quality of test assignments. Several linguists suggested different task characteristics frameworks that contain certain sets of characteristics for reading tasks. By applying these frameworks, the current study investigated the characteristics of a good reading test task designed for summative assessment at language courses. To add to that, the paper analyses characteristics of listening task types and how they affect learners’ performance.