Lena Simonyan

Constuction and Validation of a Task-based Test in Armenian Context: Task-based Test vs. Traditional Standardized Test Lena Simonyan

The primary aim of this study was to find out the effectiveness of task-based testing in the Armenian context. This study was an attempt to construct and validate a task-based achievement test against a traditional standardized test. Furthermore, this study aimed to make comparisons between traditional and task-based tests, by pointing a number of negative criticisms of standardized tests and exams. Afterwards, all the characteristics of the task-based testing are clearly mentioned and thoroughly described in this paper. The data for this study was collected through (1) the administration of the two tests (task-based and traditional) and (2) the scores of the MESA traditional test (Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia). The data, gathered through the total scores of each test (task-based test, traditional test designed exclusively for this study and the traditional test designed by the Ministry of Education), were analyzed with the help of SPSS program. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.