Fateme Karimi - Islamic Azad University, Safashahr Branch

One of the major characteristics of standard tests is validity. Validity refers to the scores obtained from a particular test not to the test itself. In this paper at first I discuss traditional view about validity, which subdivides validity into three categories: content, criterion-related and construct validity. Content, validity includes any validity strategies that focus on the content of the test. Criterion-related validity focuses on the correlation of the test being validated with some standard outside measures. Then validity as a unitary concept is discussed by presenting messick’s framework. After that the process of validation of language test is discussed. Some evidential basis for validity, including content coverage, content relevance and criterion relatedness are discussed. Next construct validity as a unified concept that includes both content relevance an criterion relatedness is discussed. At the end evidence supporting construct validity is provided. Teachers and instructor should be careful about the validity of tests, because tests may influence future life of individuals