There are many causes for the variation of the result in oral proficiency test such as the examiner, the task, the theme of the interview, and the gender of the participants. Previous literature documents that the rater is an important variable influencing test scores of second language oral proficiency. Although much research in language testing has been conducted concerning rater effect on test scores, there has been little attention paid to the effect of potential rater variables in language testing on their rating process. There are noticeably different contents of the rating scales across different speaking tests developed in different context. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to apply the same rating criteria for various tasks. In conclusion, we need more subject protocol analyses and more thoughtful studies on rating processes. In other words, the oral proficiency test needs a more realistic and valid tool for the assessment of second language proficiency. 요 약 영어 능력평가를 위한 테스트는 평가자, 과제, 인터뷰의 주제, 그리고 평가 받는 사람의 성별 등 여러 가지
The purpose of this article is to investigate ways of making the cloze test more valid as an English proficiency test so that it can provide a better format for the cloze test especially to the non-native teachers in EFL environments. This investigation identifies ways of validity in terms of materials, deletion rates, item characteristics and scoring methods used in cloze tests. An increase in test validity can be accomplished by knowing how the four factors affect the cloze test results and how to manipulate them. Practical suggestions are provided for teachers to design a cloze test. Teachers can develop the reliability and validity of cloze tests by manipulating the four factors. In seeking a more valid and reliable cloze format, this research gives some suggestions based on a literature review. We can conclude that a cloze test can be valid only when teachers are aware of the factors which affect the test result and the ways to handle the factors to make the test appropriate for their test purposes.
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