The english test in TEOG (Transition examination from primary to secondary education-tepse): Content validity and English language teachers' views

One of the most important dynamics of the educational setting all over the world is examinations, and some of those are English tests. In Turkey, one of the English tests for the students preparing for the high schools was TEPSE. The effects of these exams have been investigated; however, other principles of language assessment such as validity and reliability have not been investigated based on the analysis of documents. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the content validity of the English tests in TEPSE, which were conducted from 2015 to 2017 based on both documents and language teachers' views. TEPSE English tests from 2015 to 2017, the coursebook, and semi-structured interviews held with 21 English language teachers were used to collect data. The analyses of TEPSE English tests and the coursebook were compared based on the frequently used items to reveal the consistency between them. Moreover, table of specifications was used to examine the alignment between TEPSE English tests and the functions of the units. The results revealed that there was an alignment between TEPSE English tests and the coursebook based on the frequently used items. However, there were some inconsistencies between the functions and the units, and distribution of the questions on the units was not equal in some TEPSE English tests, which might affect content validity negatively. Despite some inconsistencies, unequal distributions, and neglecting four language skills, TEPSE English tests between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 have content validity based on the alignment between the coursebook and TEPSE English tests.