Inside the Black box of classroom language tests

1. Introduction Tests are powerful devices as they can determine the future of individuals and programs. Tests are therefore used by those who recognize their power for a variety of purposes, goals and agenda and not necessarily to measure knowledge. Tests are used for creating policies, for introducing new curricula and programs, for defining knowledge, for motivating students to learn and teachers to teach (Shohamy 1994, 1996, 1997). This may be the reason why external tests, those produced by testing agencies and Ministries of Education, get much attention from researchers and test developers. But there are other types of tests, those that are used in the classroom, serve important roles in teaching and learning, yet are being ignored and overlooked. These classroom tests may not have so much power as external tests do as they do not have such significant impact on test takers' lives, but still play an important role in the process of learning. Classroom tests have other traits, other powers, in that they can benefit the instructional process and are extremely useful for teaching and learning. Thus, while external tests are powerful devices that can lead to high stake decisions, tests that are used in the classroom are of lower stakes in terms of their impact on individual lives as they often do not lead to decisions beyond the classroom boundaries. They are nevertheless beneficial from a pedagogical perspective. The lack of attention to classroom tests is an interesting phenomenon as students are constantly subject to a large number of classroom tests during their schooling while they only rarely take external tests. After all, it is in the classroom where there is a vibrant and dynamic testing culture. It is where tests are used on an on-going basis as part of the learning and teaching process. It is where quizzes, tests and examinations are used for purposes of providing feedback, assigning grades and conducting evaluations. It is where tests are used by teachers to assess their students, to find out what they have learned to provide them with diagnostic feedback as to the quality and effectiveness of their learning. It is also where teachers obtain information about the effectiveness of their teaching. It is where a variety of assessment tools and devices such as assignments, projects, portfolios, self assessment and other creative procedures are constantly used for multiple of purposes. And it is where tests and quizzes are administered for assessing periodical progress, for obtaining summative information at the completion of teaching units and end of semesters. While a single classroom test cannot determine whether a student will be accepted or rejected to a certain program or whether s/he will enter a specific level of learning, it should also be realized that the cumulative effect of a number of classroom tests can lead to a final score that can eventually lead to a high stake decision as well. Yet, in spite of these varied purposes and uses of classroom tests throughout the whole education process, only external tests draw the attention of test developers and researchers. Thus, tests such as matriculation examinations in many countries, entrance exams to different programs and graduation tests are the focus of research, theory, development and topics of discussions and debates while classroom tests are being ignored. This holds true for both general testing and language testing. In language testing, for example, it is rare to find any article or piece of research that addresses the issues and uses of language tests in the classroom as most of the energy is devoted to the powerful high stake external tests. The lack of classroom testing practices has lead to the situation where theories, procedures and findings from external testing are wrongly applied in language testing in the classroom. Thus, there is hardly any knowledge about classroom tests, how they are used, by whom, for what, when and why. …