16 measuring intended criteria, its impact on the preparation of test-takers, its effect
on the learner, and the intended and unintended social consequences of a test’s interpretation and use.
5 Face Validity Face validity means the way the test looks to the examinees, test
administrators, educators, and the like Harris, 1969: 21. Face validity refers to the degree to which test looks right, and appears to measure the knowledge or
abilities it claims to measure, based on the judgment of the examinees who take it, the administrative personnel who decide on its use, and other psychometrically
unsophisticated observers Mousavi, 2002 as cited by Brown 2004: 26. Moreover, Brown 2004: 27 mentions that
Face validity will likely be high if learners encounter 1 a well-construct, expected format with familiar tasks, 2 a test that is clear doable within
the allotted time limit, 3 items that are clear and uncomplicated, 4 directions that are crystal clear, 5 tasks that are related to their course
work content validity, and 6 a difficulty level that represents a reasonable challenge.
c. Practicality
An effective test is practical. This means that is not excessively expensive, stays within appropriate time constraints, is relatively easy to administer, and has
a scoringevaluation procedure that is specific and time-efficient Brown, 2004: 19. Harris 1969: 21 mentions three considerations of practicality as follows.
1 Economy Testing can be expensive. Thus, it should be determined whether several
administrations andor scorers will be needed, for the more personnel who must be involved in giving and scoring a test, the more costly the process becomes.
17 Economy in time is also a main consideration. In writing or selecting a test, the
test administrator should certainly pay attention to how long the administering and scoring of it will take.
2 Ease of Administration and Scoring To find out the ease of a test, the test administrator should answer the
questions: Does the test provide clear directions so that the test administrator can perform his tasks quickly and efficiently? Does the test call for elaborate
mechanical devices such as audio equipment that may not be readily accessible or cannot easily be installed in the rooms available? Must each test be
administered separately, thereby greatly complicating the testing process? 3 Ease of Interpretation
The test administrator needs to have some general guidance as to the meaning of test scores to begin with, for without this it is extremely difficult to
use an instrument in an efficient manner.
d. Authenticity
Bachman and Palmer 1996 as quoted by Brown 2004: 28 define authenticity as the degree of correspondence of the characteristic of a given
language test to the features of a target language task. When a test maker makes a claim for authenticity in a test task, he makes the test in the “real world.” Brown
2004: 28 states that in a test, authenticity may be presented in the following ways: 1 The language in the test is as natural as possible, 2 items are
contextualized rather isolated, 3 topics are meaningful relevant, interesting for
18 the learners, 4 some thematic organization to items is provided, such as through
a story line or episode, 5 task represent, or closely approximate, real-world task.
2. Testing Reading
