Scratching Where They Itch: Evaluation of Feedback on a Diagnostic English Grammar Test for Taiwanese University Students

Abstract

Feedback to the test taker is a defining characteristic of diagnostic language testing (Alderson, 2005). This article reports on a study that investigated how much and in what ways students at a Taiwan university perceived the feedback to be useful on an online multiple-choice diagnostic English grammar test, both in general and by students of higher and lower language proficiency. Stage 1 involved questionnaire data from 68 students who rated each item's feedback according to usefulness, and Stage 2 involved interviews with five students as they read the feedback after taking the test. The data from these two stages showed students' overall positive attitude toward the feedback and students' preferences for particular feedback characteristics. The study also found that although higher proficiency test takers found the feedback to be more useful than lower proficiency test-takers, views about the characteristics of good feedback were similar regardless of level. Recommendations for improving diagnostic language test construction and validation are discussed based upon the findings. BACKGROUNDDiagnostic language testing, which aims to identify test takers' linguistic strengths and weaknesses so as to guide their learning, has received increasing attention after long neglect, as researchers have sought ways to make language assessments more oriented towards learning

Student Interpretations of Diagnostic Feedback

“…Huhta (2007) observed students' dissatisfaction with the Vocabulary Size Placement Test (VSPT) of DIALANG when they felt the results did not reflect their skills. More recently, Yin, Sims, and Cothran (2012) drew on student interview and questionnaire data at a Chinese university to examine the usefulness of diagnostic test items' feedback. Similar to Huhta's (2007) findings, the higher-proficiency students perceived the feedback as being more useful.…”

Integrating diagnostic assessment into curriculum: a theoretical framework and teaching practices

“…In the current study, both methods were used to qualitatively investigate students' beliefs of diagnostic assessment, and their perceptions of diagnosis-based remediation either through interactive and directed discussions, or by individual interviews. Interview questions were adopted from Doe (2015), Jang (2009), andYin, Sims, andCothran (2012). Below is a list of example questions.…”

At the intersection of language assessment and academic advising: Communicating results of a large-scale diagnostic academic English writing assessment to students and other stakeholders

“…Although being an integral part of language assessment, and especially of diagnostic language assessment, feedback practices have not received as much attention as other aspects of the assessment cycle (see, e.g. Yin, Sims & Cothran, 2012). Feedback in language assessment can constitute a number of different elements, e.g.…”