Language tests are carried out with specific purposes in mind. As we use them to obtain information about the students, we may categories tests according tot he kinds of information being sought. We may put them into the following divisions.
1. Placement tests
2. Achievement
3. Diagnostic
4.
Proficiency tests are designed to measure people’s ability language regardless of an training they may have had in that language. The content of a proficiency test is therefore, not based on the content or objectives of a language course.
In the case of some “Proficient” means having sufficient command of the language ‘for particular purpose’. An example of this would be a test used to determine whether a student’s English is good enough to follow a course of study at a British University. In contrast to them, there are other proficiency tests which do not have any occupation or course of study in mind. For them, the concept of proficiency is more general. British examples of these would be the Cambridge examinations and the Oxford EFL examinations.
Unlike achievement tests, proficiency tests are in no way related to any syllabus or teaching program. They are quite independent of the teaching institutions and their course contents. In fact, such tests may themselves exercise considerable influence over the method and content of language course. Their backwash effect may be beneficial or harmful. However, teachers and students may work together to fight out the harmful backwash effect by influencing the testing organizations concerned to bring some necessary things. For example, A writing test was introduced as a supplement to TOEFL in 1986 to provide beneficial backwash.
Type of Testing
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