Browsing by Author "Mehret, Asmare"

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    An Assessment of the Content Validity of English Language Tests: The Case of Awassa College of Health Sciences
    (Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Mehret, Asmare; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    The purpose of this study was to assess if the coverage of English language tests administered in Awassa College of Health Sciences (ACHS) fairly represent the coverage of the coursebook. Hence, to meet the purpose of the study, English tests for third year students were selected. The main data sources, therefore, were the English coursebook for third year students and sample test papers administered for the same group of students in the academic years 2006-2008. From each year, one progress test and one final classroom achievement tests were included in the study. Then, the contents of the coursebook and sample test papers were analyzed in order to get the required data for the study. Besides, unstructured interview was administered to all English language teachers in the college. After the necessary data had been obtained, Siegel’s formula was used to determine the extent to which the two observations (Coursebook and sample test contents) are related. The result of the study shows that the content of sample test papers does not adequately represent the coverage of the coursebook. Some content areas, for example, grammar pronunciation, listening in the coursebook were not proportionally incorporated in the sample test papers. That is, there was a problem in allocating the percentages in tests from each content area in the teaching material coursebook. The degree of relationship between the coursebook and sample test papers was found to be 0.13. Thus, it was concluded that English language tests in Awassa College of Health Sciences were poor at content validity since they were unrepresentative.