Multiple Choice
Indirect assessment tries to assess the abilities that underlie the skills we are measuring and often uses items where the student selects a response, rather than constructing their own. One common kind of question used in indirect assessment is multiple-choice or binary questions (True/False), such as parts 1 and 4 of the sample test.
Advantages of Multiple Choice
Before watching the video, think about why teachers use multiple choice questions.
Language teachers discuss the advantages of multiple choice tests.
Duration: 02:29
To summarize, multiple choice tests have some advantages which include:
- easy to score,
- increase reliability,
- may lower test anxiety,
- requires little instruction, and
- manageable for beginning learners who can't produce a lot.
Disadvantages of Multiple Choice
Having considered the advantages, let's consider what could be problematic about multiple-choice questions.
Before watching the video, think of several disadvantages of these test questions.
Language teachers consider the disadvantages of multiple choice questions.
Duration: 01:51
There are a number of problems in using multiple choice questions, some of which follow:
- only assesses recognition of language,
- limited inferences about language possible,
- inauthentic to real language use,
- students can guess the answers, and
- writing successful multiple choice questions is difficult.