ALIGNING INSTITUTIONAL ENGLISH EXIT TESTS TO NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY IN VIETNAM: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMERWORK AND METHODOLOGY FOR EMPIRICAL EVALUATION

Thi Thuy Nhan¹*, Cuc Nguyen², Shelley Gillis^3
1Ms., The University of Melbourne, Australia, tnhan@student.unimelb.edu.au
²Dr., The University of Melbourne, Australia, cuc.nguyen@unimelb.edu.au
³Assc. Prof., The University of Melbourne, Australia, shelley.gillis@unimelb.edu.au
*Corresponding author

Abstract

In this era of accountability, the notion of standards and standards of competence is present and influential in almost every profession (Wolf & Cumming, 2000). Evidence of standards compliance and standards achievements is critical to the enhancement of accountability and demands concrete evidence of the process in which standards are set, quality assurance is implemented, and alignment to standards is maintained. This study selects a recent English exit testing policy in Vietnam as a case study to investigate standards compliance and standards achievements in higher education and foreign language education.
Due to the globally defined status of the English language, the Vietnamese government has sanctioned an English exit testing policy in its recent National Foreign Language Initiative 2020 with the aim of enabling most Vietnamese students graduating from secondary, vocational schools, colleges and universities to use a foreign language confidently in their daily communication, their study and work (Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training, 2008). For the higher education sector, the policy mandates students to achieve a specified level of English to be eligible for graduation. Vietnamese universities have responded differently to this policy: Some universities design their own English exit tests to measure students’ proficiency in English; others choose an international English test for their students. Regarding English exit tests produced by Vietnamese institutions, much of the information regarding test development and the degree of alignment to the government standards for English language proficiency has not been made transparent regarding whether customized assessments can provide accountable and valid information regarding students’ performance against the Vietnamese standards for English language proficiency.
This paper is motivated by the need for research-based evidence regarding how Vietnamese institutions are appropriating and aligning their current assessments of students’ English language proficiency with the government standards of English language proficiency. After reviewing different properties, models, and issues related to alignment in the literature, this study identifies a developmental approach towards instrument development (Embretson & Reise, 2000; Griffin, 1993, 2009; Griffin, Gillis, & Calvitto, 2007; Wolfe & Smith, 2007) and a unified view of validity (Messick, 1989) as a conceptual framework to guide the evaluation of assessments-to-standards alignment. This framework can guide the evaluation of both the outcomes and the steps undertaken throughout alignment activities and also enable more empirical findings and science to ground the evaluation of alignment projects, which has otherwise over-relied on subjective judgments and experience. The methodology for evaluating the degree of assessments-to-standards alignment employs content analysis and Rasch (1960, 1980) modeling. Regarding the significance of this study, the methodology employed to evaluate alignment can guide future benchmarking activities, especially those related to language assessments and language standards, an area seldom investigated in comparison with alignment projects for other content assessments and standards.

Keywords: English language standards, exit tests, educational alignment, assessments-to-standards alignment