Dominant models of language assessment in Azerbaijani universities

Abstract

The fundamental intention behind conducting this research was mainly scrutinizing the levels and types of questions administered in ESP courses such as ‘Computer Engineering’, ‘Petroleum and Chemical Engineering ’, ‘Civil Mechanical’, ‘Economics and management’as well as ‘Psychology’ taught at Khazar University over the last five years. In this regard, The purpose of the inspection was to carefully examine the questions taking into account Bloom’s (1956) Taxonomy for learning objectives (i.e., remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating) and internationally acknowledged ESP standards. Purposefully a coding scheme was designated and the lowdown implied through results was revealed by virtue of Bloom’s taxonomy along with ESP requirements. Outcomes of the trial received from 605 questions delineate the fact that majority of the employed questions are in accordance with remembering, understanding and applying levels regarded as lower-level cognition whilst creating, evaluating and analyzing levels considered as higher-level cognition categories were less employed in comparison. However test designers’ very standpoint could be justified regarding their understanding of students’background education and psychological conditions. Additionally, it was revealed that analyzed test items are perfectly aligned with contemporary assessment criteria and meet the needs of ESP requirements.