The Consequential Validity of a Post-Entry Language Assessment in Hong Kong

Abstract

The launch of the 3 + 3 + 4 education reform in Hong Kong has posed challenges to as well as created opportunities for tertiary institutions. It has invariably led to reviews of the effectiveness of their existing English language curricula and discussions among language practitioners in the tertiary sector as to what kind of English curriculum and assessment would serve the needs and interest of the new breed of senior secondary school graduates, who have had only six years to study English in the new education system as compared with seven years in the old system. This chapter reports on the pedagogical and assessment strategies adopted by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) to embrace these challenges, and the findings of a pilot study conducted to investigate the consequential validity of a post-entry language assessment used at HKUST. Consequential validity is often associated with test washback. In Messick’s expanded notion of test validity (Messick 1989), the evidential and consequential bases of test score interpretation and test score use are considered as crucial components of validity. It covers not just elements of test use, but also the impact of testing on students and teachers, the interpretation of test scores by stakeholders, and the unintentional effects of the test. This chapter reports the findings of the pilot study and discusses their implications for the use of PELAs.