Testing plays a very important role in teaching and learning process. Testing is one form of measurement which is used to point out strengths and weaknesses in the learned abilities of the students. Through testing, especially tests scores we may discover the performance of given students and of teachers. As far as students are concerned, test scores reveal what they have achieved after a learning period. As for teachers, test scores indicate what they have taught to their students. Based on test results, we may make improvement in teaching, learning and testing for better instructional effectiveness.
Another reason for the selection of testing a matter of study lies in the fact that the current language testing at Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT) has been under a lot of controversy among students and teachers. Testing is mainly carried out in the form of two objective tests on computers (named test 1 and test 2) which are administered at the end of each semester. The scores that a student gets on these tests are the main indicators of his or her performance during the whole semester. There are different comments on the results of these tests, especially the test 1 for the second-year non-English majors. Some subject teachers claim that these tests do not truly reflect the students’ language competence. Others say that these tests are appropriate to what students have learnt in class and compatible with the course objectives and therefore reliable. Also, among the students, do opposite ideas exist. Many think that these tests are more difficult than what they have learnt and studied for the exam, others say that these test items are easy and relevant to what they have been taught. Therefore finding out whether the tests are closely related with what the students have been learnt and what the teachers have taught, also, whether these tests are of reliability is indispensable.