Assessment versus Testing

One of the inseparable parts of language learning and teaching is the evaluation one based on which our decisions will be made both on programs and individuals, tests and other measures of judgments. Different formats and designs of tests have been used so far to benchmark students on the basis of their achieved score. However, the result of those tests and the judgment may not be trustworthy, because they pay little or no attention to the educational progress of the students. On the other hand, assessment which concentrates on the systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well students’learning matches expectations and using the resulting information to understand an improve students’ learning. The present paper aims to have comprehensivedefinitions of both testing and assessment. Then, the writers look at the brief history of these two concepts. Also, after taking a look at the characteristics of theterms, they go on to describe the distinctions should be made between assessment and testing in a comparison body and their relationships with normreference tests (NRT) and criterion-reference tests (CRT) are also mentioned.Finally, it is pointed out that how teaching is related to testing and assessment.

Keywords:

assessment , testing , NRT , CRT