Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

English is well known as an international language in the world. It is spoken by some countries as a first language or mother tongue, as the second language or as an official language, which is used as a means in international communication among countries. Based on the fact explained above, English language has an important position, because of that, English language becomes the first foreign language that should be taught to students in every level of education in Indonesia. Government and private institution are struggling to enhance teaching and learning process of English in Indonesia. In education, one of the important fields, which should be paid attention to, is an evaluation. It is considered that between teachings and testing is like a two side of coin, which cannot be separated. Obviously, it contributes some information to the teaching learning process, especially for a teacher. J. Stanley Ahmann and Marvin D. Glock say that Evaluation is the systematic process of determining the effectiveness of educational endeavors in the light of evidence. 1 In addition, they say that from the breadth of this definition, the uses of educational evaluation are broad and diverse. Four subgroups have been identified: 1. Appraisal of academic achievement of individual pupils 2. Diagnosis of learning difficulties of an individual pupils or an entire class 3. Appraisal of an educational effectiveness of a curriculum, instructional materials and procedures, and organizational arrangements 1 J. Stanley Ahmann Marvin D. Glock, Evaluation Pupil Growth, principles of Tests and Measurements, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1967, p. 4 4. Assessment of the educational progress of large populations to help understand educational problems and develop sound public policy in education 2 Another expert says that evaluation is a systematic process of determining the extent to which instructional objectives are achieved by pupils. 3 There are two important aspects of this definition. The first is that evaluation implies a systematic process, which omits casual uncontrolled observation of pupils. The second is that evaluation assumes that instructional objectives have been previously identified. Without previously determined objectives, it is difficult to judge clearly the nature and extent of pupil learning. To evaluate teaching learning activities, there are many methods, which can be used. One of them is a test. 4 By testing, teachers can get important information related to students’ achievement or the effectiveness of their performance in teaching. In other word, the teacher can get information about how well students have mastered courses, which they have just learned. There are numerous types of test. These are placement test, achievement test, proficiency test and aptitude test. The test which is usually used by teachers to know how far students have mastered the lessons is the achievement test. The Achievement test is intended to establish how successful individual students, groups of students, or the courses themselves have been in achieving objectives of language courses. 5 There are two kinds of achievement test: progress achievement tests and final achievement tests. 6 Progress achievements are those intended to measure the progress that student are making and final achievement tests or summative tests are intended to measure the students’ achievement at the end of a course of study. 2 J. Stanley Ahmann Marvin D. Glock, Evaluation Pupil Growth ... p. 5 3 Norman E. Gronlund, Measurement and Evaluation in Teaching, fouth Edition, New York: Mcmillan Publishing co., 1981, p. 5 4 Anas Sudijono, Pengantar Evaluasi Pendidikan, Jakarta: PT. RajaGrafindo Persada, 1996, p. 75 5 Arthur Hughes, Testing for Language Teacher, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press., 1995, p. 10 6 Arthur Hughes, Testing for …p. 10 In order to measure accurately, the teachers should use a good test. It is not an easy work for them to make it because there are some characteristics or requirements that must be fulfilled. The characteristics of good test include validity, reliability, objectivity, and practicality. 7 The validity of a test is the extent to which a test measures what it is intended to measure. 8 The validity has four specifications, those are face, content, construct, and criterion related validity. 9 It is generally found that a test has not reached the validity because the teachers focus on the whole themes and linguistic skills in the textbook. In addition, the test cannot be representative or sampling adequacy of the content of instruction. In other word, the test has a poor content validity. Consequently, the test which is designed to measure the students’ proficiency is not an appropriate. It is a pity that summative test which is made by professional team called KKS Kelompok Kerja Sekolah does not have the important characteristic of good test, that is validity. Specifically, the test has a poor content validity. Because of the importance of content validity in a test, the writer tries to know whether the test items are in line with the syllabus or not. The English syllabus that is used here is the latest one recommended by national education department. The summative test which will be studied is taken from SMPN 4 Bekasi for the first level students, academic year 2007 2008. The summative test is named: “Ulangan Kenaikan Kelas Tahun Pelajaran 2007 2008. Therefore based on that problem, the writer tries to analyze and interpret it under the title: “An Analysis on the Content Validity of the Summative Test for the First Year Students of SMPN 4 Bekasi”.

B. Statement of the Problem