Computer-based language assessment: The future is here

David Booth
David Booth
A blonde woman sat at a computer with headphones on in a room with more computers and desks in background

Many people are surprised at the idea of a computer program marking an exam paper. However, computer-based testing already exists in many different formats and many different areas. Many tests or exams that form part of our daily life are taken on computers. If you’ve ever learned to drive, sat a citizenship test, done a training course at work, or completed a placement test for a language course, the odds are that you’ve already taken an automated test.

Yet despite it being so common, there is still a lack of understanding when it comes to computer-based language assessment and how a computer can evaluate productive skills like speaking and writing.

Computer-based testing: a closer look

A common issue is that people have different ideas of what these tests entail. Computers can fulfill several essential roles in the testing process, but these often go unacknowledged. For example, a variety of test questions are needed to administer an exam, along with relevant data, and computers are used to store both the questions and the data. When it comes to creating randomized exams, computer software is used to select the exam questions, based on this data.

Computers can make complex calculations far more quickly and accurately than humans. This means that processes that previously took a long time are completed in days, rather than weeks.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is now capable of grading exam papers, for example. This means a shorter wait for exam results. In , candidates receive their results in an average of two days rather than waiting weeks for an examiner to mark their paper by hand.

The benefits for students and teachers

People take exams to prove their skills and abilities. Depending on their goals, the right result can open the door to many new opportunities, whether that is simply moving on to the next stage of a course, or something as life-changing as allowing you to take up your place on a university course in another country.

A qualification can act as a passport to a better career or an enhanced education, and for that reason, it’s important that both students and teachers can have faith in their results.

Computer programs have no inherent bias, which means that candidates can be confident that they will all be treated the same, regardless of their background, appearance or accent. , just one of app’s computer-based exams, offers students the chance to score additional points on the exam with innovative integrated test items.

This integration means that the results are a far more accurate depiction of the candidate’s abilities and provide a truer reflection of their linguistic prowess.

More than questions on a screen

It’s not as easy as simply transferring the questions onto a computer screen. All that does is remove the need for pen and paper; this is a missed opportunity to harness the precision and speed of a computer, as well as its learning potential.

Tests that have been fully digitized, such as PTE Academic, benefit from that automation; eliminating examiner bias, making the test fairer and calculating the results more quickly. Automated testing builds on the technological tradition of opening doors for the future – not closing them.

How technology enhances language testing

The development of automated testing technologies doesn’t merely make the examination process quicker and more accurate – it also gives us the chance to innovate. Speaking assessments are an excellent example of this.

Previously, this part of a language exam involved an interview, led by an examiner, who asked questions and elicited answers. But now that we have the technological capability, using a computer offers students the chance to be tested on a much wider range of speaking skills, without worrying about the inherent bias of the examiner.

Indeed, the use of a computer-based system facilitates integrated skills testing. Traditionally, language exams had separate papers focusing on the four skills of reading, listening, speaking and writing. But the more modern concept of language testing aims to assess these linguistic skills used together, just as they are in real-life situations.

Afterwards, the various scores are categorized to allow learners an insight into their strengths and weaknesses, which helps both students and teachers identify areas which need improvement. This useful feedback is only possible because of the accuracy and detail of automated exam grading.

The space race on paper

Back in the 1960s, during the space race, computers were still a relatively new concept. Kathleen Johnson, one of the first African-American women to work for NASA as a scientist, was a mathematician with a reputation for doing incredibly complex manual calculations. Although computers had made the orbital calculations, the astronauts on the first space flight refused to fly until Kathleen had checked those calculations three times.

This anecdote reminds us that - although computer technology is an inherent part of everyday life - now and then, we still need to check that their systems are working as they should. Human error still comes into play – after all, humans program these systems.

PTE Academic – a fully digitized exam

Every stage of PTE Academic, from registration to practice tests to results (both receiving and sharing them with institutions) happens online. It may come as a surprise to learn that the test itself is not taken online. Instead, students attend one of over 295 test centers to take the exam, which comes with the highest levels of data security.

This means that each student can sit the exam in an environment designed for that purpose. It also allows the receiving institutions, such as universities and colleges, to be assured of the validity of the PTE Academic result.

The future is here

We created computers, but they have surpassed us in many areas – exam grading being a case in point. Computers can score more accurately and consistently than humans, and they don’t get tired late in the day, or become distracted by a candidate’s accent.

The use of AI technology to grade student responses represents a giant leap forward in language testing, leading to fairer and more accurate student results. It also means more consistency in grading which benefits the institutions, such as universities, which rely on these scores to accurately reflect ability.

And here at app, we are invested in staying at the cutting edge of assessment. Our test developers are incorporating AI solutions now, using its learning capacity to create algorithms and build programs that can assess speaking and writing skills accurately and quickly. We’re expanding the horizons of English language assessment for students, teachers and all the other professionals involved in each stage of the language learning journey.

Explore our use of AI for our exams

More blogs from app

  • A woman on her laptop smiling and working

    The science behind Smart Lesson Generator: Making teaching easier with AI

    By Thomas Gardner
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    It's 6 AM on a Monday morning. Ms. Lopez wakes up early to prepare for the day ahead. She spends the morning reviewing lesson plans, making sure everything is ready for her students. By lunchtime, she is preparing for the afternoon, grabbing a quick bite between classes... but it doesn’t stop there. The school day finishes but Ms. Lopez stays late marking assignments. Finally, on Sunday night, she sits at her kitchen table, surrounded by papers, course books and lesson plans.

    Does this sound familiar? You are not alone.

    The challenge teachers face

    In 2024, app research found that76% of teachers spend at least one hour of their personal time on lesson planning each week, with 43% spending more than three hours. This is a lot of time that could be spent on other important tasks. Teachers need a solution that helps them plan lessons fast, is connected to their course books and is built by learning experts.

  • A teacher stood in front of her class with her students raising their hands

    What is rapid prototyping and how can it apply to the ELT classroom?

    By Nicole Kyriacou
    Reading time: 5 minutes

    Tom Chi is an internet veteran with quite a resumé. His roles have been many and varied – from astrophysical researcher to Fortune 500 consultant and corporate executive, developing new hardware and software products and services.

    He worked on Microsoft Outlook when it was in its infancy, was a major influence in taking Yahoo Search from 0 to 90 million users and is now Head of Product Experience at Google X – Alphabet’s secretive division focused on creating technological innovations for the future. It has produced the self-driving car and Google Glass, and its Project Loon aims to provide internet to every square inch of the earth.

    At Google X, Tom was in a unique position – always having to think five, ten or even more years ahead in order to conceptualize and build the technology of the future. As you might imagine, this is far from an easy task; not only do the ideas have to be original, but they have to meet people’s future needs – something that is not easy to predict.

    So, how does Tom and the others at Google X deliver their vision for the future using today's materials and technology?

    That’s where Rapid Prototyping comes in. It’s a concept that allows teams to experiment, learn and adjust prototypes quickly and cheaply, so that projects (and products) get off the ground. Failure is seen as a starting block and an inevitable part of the learning process. Following his workshop, we are going to look further at rapid prototyping and how it can relate to the ELT classroom.

  • A woman reading outside with a book

    Three ways English students can learn to read at home

    By Kate Fitzpatrick
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    Read more at home if you want to learn English faster: three ways to get into the habit

    I can hear parents, ELT learners and teachers all over the world thinking to themselves: We know it helps if English students learn to read for pleasure at home, but how are we supposed to find the time? Who is buying these materials? What if a parent doesn’t speak English themselves?

    That’s the beauty of reading at home, also called extensive reading: it’s completely autonomous and parents can be as involved as much or little as they like. There’s more good news as it’s never been cheaper to assemble a selection of extensive readers for your children or students, meaning that cost is no longer so much of a barrier to reading at home.

    Is extensive reading really that critical to learning English?

    Stephen D. Krashen’s [1]offers a marvellous summary and critique of extensive reading studies around the world, concluding that:

    "When [second language learners] read for pleasure, they can continue to improve in their second language without classes, without teachers, without study and even without people to converse with.’"(Krashen 1993 p. 84)

    Philip Prowse’s excellent article, “What is the secret of extensive reading?”[2]agrees with Krashen’s conclusion.

    Prowse goes into more detail about efficacy studies at primary, secondary and adult levels. This body of evidence finds that reading for pleasure improves results in grammar, writing, speaking and fluency, as well as comprehension and vocabulary – both alongside and instead of traditional textbooks.

    So, we know it works. As with so many education-related things, the question is how to implement them. Christine Nuttall talks about the virtuous circle of reading – once a learner begins to enjoy reading, they are more likely to read more and benefit more from it, so they learn to read more, and so on.

    The reverse is also true. The questions then follow: how do we motivate our Instakids to read at home in English, if they won’t read in their first language? How do we carve out time between travel, work, school and homework? Here are three ways you can form the habit of reading at home:

    1. Learners need access to extensive reading material at home to use it

    Krashen establishes this common-sense fact based on five studies from 1983 to 2003.[2]It can be a reading app, an online library subscription or a pile of readers in the corner – whatever it is, it has to be the right level for the student and it has to be a topic they’re interested in, or they’ll never learn to read for pleasure.

    Negative reading habits can happen simply because there isn’t much available to the learner: Worthy and McCool studied 11 sixth-graders in 1998 who "hated to read", and found a direct correlation between those students and the lack of reading material at home.[3] Thankfully, we now have more options than we used to:

    For extensive reading online, the Extensive Reading Foundation offers good-quality, free materials, in audio and print, at its .These text resources and audiobooks tend to be quite basic and the stories are largely classics. You can choose by level and genre, and there is also a publisher directory.

    • You can purchase full app English Readers and other publishers’ Kindle editions on the Kindle store, iBookstore and Google Play, and read them on an e-reader, phone or tablet using the Kindle app. These are finely-graded, contemporary, relevant e-books with titles like , , , , , , and .
    • An e-book library subscription can be a cost-effective way to get access to a lot of e-books online through your browser. is a Japanese-run online library which offers hundreds of full-text graded readers, from reputable publishers, and charges about $19 per year.
    • For print readers, cost can be an issue. If you can't buy readers at your local bookshop from a publisher like app, you can buy first- or second-hand readers cheaply from Amazon or the Book Depository, or you can ask your school to let you know when they’re upgrading their readers library, as you may be able to take some of the older books home.

    2.Make the most of the commute or the school run

    The key here is routine – give it a try and see if it works for you. Reading doesn’t just happen on a page. Today’s English learners have multiple ways to read for pleasure on their various devices as well as in print, all of which are well-adapted for reading and listening on the train/on the bus/in the car/on foot.

    I listen to podcasts on my commute by train and, to this day, I know my times tables thanks to a tape my mother used to play in the car on the way to primary school.

    • Download a podcast or audiobook. Ideally, an English learner would both read and listen, but one or the other is better than nothing. Audible.com has plenty of English extensive readers in audiobook format, and a year’s membership is $10 per month, or you can buy individual audiobooks. There are classic extensive reading podcasts available on iTunes for $4.99 each.
    • Never underestimate your public library.is an online service that finds your local library for you, wherever you are in the world. You can also search by title and see which libraries carry that particular book. Just think: you could create an instant, extensive reading library at your home for free that changes every month.

    3. Consider the power of rewards

    You can reward your child or reward yourself for building a reading habit. Remember, we are talking about starting a virtuous circle: persuading a learner to begin a new habit of reading in English for pleasure. Reward mechanisms can be very effective.

    This idea should be explored on a case-by-case basis – it depends on what you or your child responds to best. In my opinion, starting a reading habit is well worth a glass of wine, a chocolate treat, or an extra half-hour playing video games.

    References

    [1]Krashen, Stephen D. (2004),p57

    [2] Prowse, Philip: “”

    [3] Worthy, J. and McKool, S. (1996): “” in Ibid, p61