Practices of EFL teachers in test construction

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the practices of EFL teachers in test construction. It was conducted in six purposively selected secondary schools. The study addressed the following question: What are the practices of EFL teachers in test construction? The theoretical basis of the study was Bloom’s taxonomy. The design of the study was a convergent parallel mixed design along with a pragmatism paradigm. Questionnaire, semistructured interviews, nonparticipant observation and document analysis were used to collect the data. On the bases of this, the findings revealed that EFL teachers did not receive test development training. To this effect, they skipped crucial steps of test construction: the planning stage, designing stage and tryout stage. Additionally, the results of the study indicated that grammar and reading were the focus areas of the tests. The constructed exams were found that there were no tasks involving critical thinking or problem solving. Furthermore, the archive analysis data showed that EFL teachers did not follow the trend of Bloom’s taxonomy as a framework while designing tests. This study suggested that education professionals in zone and woreda should prepare for test development training in light of these findings.

Keywords

• EFL teachers’ practices
• test construction
• teacher-made tests
• test construction steps
• test usefulness
• Language Policy & planning