Diagnose specified aspects of a language.

Test overall ability.

to give test-takers feedback, usually in the form of grades, on specific course or lesson objectives.

Measure capacity/ general ability to learn a foreign language and ultimate success in that undertaking.

analyse the extent to which students have acquired language features that have already been taught.analyse the extent to which students have acquired language features that have already been taught.

Often summative, but also formative in offering washback about the quality of a learners’ performance in subsets of the unit or course.

Creating these tasks and validating them with research is time-consuming and costly process.

elicit information on what students need to work on in the future.

Predict a person’s success

classroom-based tests

to determine whether course objectives have been met – and appropriate knowledge and skills acquired – by the end of a period of instruction.

to place test-takers along a mathematical continuum in rank order

Scores are usually reported back to the test-taker in the form of a numerical score and a percentile rank