The Practices of Teachers' made Test Items Construction and Administration of EFL Teachers: The Case of Grade 9 students of Three Selected Secondary Schools in Lemmu and Bilbilo Woreda.

The purpose of this study was to assess the practices of English language test items construction<br> and teachers`test items administration of three selected secondery schools of Lemu and Bilbilo<br> Woreda. To achieve this, the study employed a descriptive survey research design.<br> Comprehensive and systematic random sampling techniques were used to select the sample of the<br> study. Thus, six English language teachers who were teaching in three selected secondary<br> schools of Lemu and Bilbilo Woreda and six Exam papers which were pepared by them in<br> 2011E.C were selected using comprehensive sampling technique. And also 107 grade nine<br> students were selected using systematic random sampling technique using comprehensive<br> sampling technique. The tools used to collect data were the questionnaire, semi-structured<br> interview, document analysis and classroom observation. The data gathered through closed-<br> ended items were coded, tabulated and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency,<br> mean and standard deviation, whereas, the additional data gained from, semi-structured<br> interview, documents (English language test papers) and English class observations were also<br> coded, categorized and identified thematically in order to approve or disapprove the quantitative<br> data. The finding of the study indicated that EFLteachers use principles of test items construction<br> and administration on average or medium with the total grand mean of 3.24. However, the<br> analysis of the qualitative data showed that teachers developed test items without advanced<br> planning and application of the principles of test items construction. On the other hand, the<br> result of document analysis showed that many of the test papers contained a lot of errors like<br> wrong and biased items, and grammatical, spelling and typing errors. Most of the test items were<br> focused on sub skills ( structure and vocabulary) ignoring major language skills. Besides, as the<br> data from the class observations showed, the constructed tests were not administered based onthe<br> guiding principles. To sum up, EFLteachers have some concept about the principles of test items<br> construction and administration theoretically, but they didn`t apply the principles of test items<br> construction and administration while in practices. As a recommendation, EFL teachers should<br> plan their time to prepare test items according to the principles of test items construction. Freediscussion and staff training should be held amoung the staff members on how to construct and administer English language test 2