Reading Skill

Twenty Common Testing Mistakes for EFL Teachers to Avoid

Testing procedure can be achieved through avoidance of errors. The list of common testing is interest as a kind of checklist to serve as a guideline for EFL teachers in the preparation of their own examinations. The common mistakes have 4 categories as follow: general examination characteristics, item characteristics, test validity concerns, and administrative and scoring issues.

            These are testing mistakes for EFL teachers to avoid when they test students. First, General examination characteristics. There are many mistakes that related to its such as test which too difficult or  too easy, an insufficient number of items, redundancy of test type, lack of confidence measure, and negative washback through non-occurent form. Second, Item characteristics that is trick question, redundant wording, divergence cues, convergence cues, and option number. Third, Test validity concern that is mixed content, wrong medium, common knowledge, syllabus mismatch, and content matching. Fourth, Administrative and scoring issues that is lack of cheating controls, inadequate instructions, administrative inequities, lack of piloting, and subjectivity of scoring.

            These problems or mistakes are amazingly common in the preparation of classroom EFL test. If teachers avoid these mistakes, the quality of EFL testing will improve. So, all teachers not only EFL teachers should avoid these mistakes because these mistake can decrease their testing quality. Before teachers giving a test to students, they should check the mistake in their test.

Vocabulary	Pronunciation	Meaning		Sentence
		Thai	English
avoidance <n.>	/ əˈvɔɪdəns /	การหลีกเลี่ยง	not doing sth; preventing sth from existing or happening	A person's health improves with the avoidance of stress.
worthwhile <adj.>	/ ˌwɜːθˈwaɪl /		important, enjoyable, interesting, etc; worth spending time, money or effort on	The smile on her face made it all worthwhile.
exhaustive <adj.>	/ ɪɡˈzɔːstɪv /		including everything possible; very thorough or complete	This list is not intended to be exhaustive.
constitute <v.>	/ ˈkɒnstɪtjuːt /	ประกอบ	to be considered to be sth	The increase in racial tension constitutes a threat to our society.
genuine <adj.>	/ ˈdʒenjuɪn /	แท้/แท้จริง	real; exactly what it appears to be; not artificial	Fake designer watches are sold at a fraction of the price of the genuine article.
discriminate <v.>	/ dɪˈskrɪmɪneɪt /	เห็นความแตกต่าง	to recognize that there is a difference between people or things; to show a difference between people or things	The computer program was unable to discriminate between letters and numbers.
insufficient <adj.>	/ ˌɪnsəˈfɪʃnt /	ไม่เพียงพอ	not large, strong or important enough for a particular purpose	The management paid insufficient attention to working conditions.

Vocabulary	Pronunciation	Meaning		Sentence
		Thai	English
redundancy <n.>	/ rɪˈdʌndənsi /	ความฟุ่มเฟือย	the state of not being necessary or useful	Natural language is characterized by redundancy.
indulge <v.>	/ ɪnˈdʌldʒ /	น่าพึงพอใจ	satisfy a particular desire, interest, etc	In the closing lines, the poet indulges his sense of irony.
conscientious<adj.>	/ ˌkɒnʃiˈenʃəs /	ซื่อตรง	taking care to do things carefully and correctly	He was thorough and conscientious, rather than brilliant.
mastery <n.>	/ ˈmɑːstəri /	การเรียนรู้	great knowledge about or understanding of a particular thing	She has mastery of several languages.
distraction <adj.>	/ dɪˈstrækʃn /	ความว้าวุ่นใจ	a thing that takes your attention away from what you are doing or thinking about	I find it hard to work at home because there are too many distractions.
astounding <adj.>	/ əˈstaʊndɪŋ /	น่าประหลาดใจ	so surprising that it is difficult to believe	There was an astounding 20% increase in sales.