Practical Language Testing

Practical Language Testing

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  • Author: Glenn Fulcher
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 1444174096
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 418

Practical Language Testing equips you with the skills, knowledge and principles necessary to understand and construct language tests. This intensely practical book gives guidelines on the design of assessments within the classroom, and provides the necessary tools to analyse and improve assessments, as well as deal with alignment to externally imposed standards. Testing is situated both within the classroom and within the larger social context, and readers are provided the knowledge necessary to make realistic and fair decisions about the use and implementation of tests. The book explains the normative role of large scale testing and provides alternatives that the reader can adapt to their own context. This fulfils the dual purpose of providing the reader with the knowledge they need to prepare learners for tests, and the practical skills for using assessment for learning. Practical Language Testing is the ideal introduction for students of applied linguistics, TESOL and modern foreign language teaching as well as practicing teachers required to design or implement language testing programmes. The book is supported by frequently updated online resources at http://languagetesting.info/ including sets of scenarios providing resources to study aviation English assessment, call centre assessment, military language assessment, and medical language assessment. The materials can be used to structure debates and seminars, with pre-reading and video activities. Practical Language Testing was commended as a 2012 runner-up of the prestigious SAGE/ILTA Award for Best Book on Language Testing.


Modern Language Testing

Modern Language Testing

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  • Author: Rebecca M. Valette
  • Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 372


A Principled Approach to Language Assessment

A Principled Approach to Language Assessment

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  • Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
  • Publisher: National Academies Press
  • ISBN: 0309675480
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 113

The United States is formally represented around the world by approximately 14,000 Foreign Service officers and other personnel in the U.S. Department of State. Roughly one-third of them are required to be proficient in the local languages of the countries to which they are posted. To achieve this language proficiency for its staff, the State Department's Foreign Service Institute (FSI) provides intensive language instruction and assesses the proficiency of personnel before they are posted to a foreign country. The requirement for language proficiency is established in law and is incorporated in personnel decisions related to job placement, promotion, retention, and pay. A Principled Approach to Language Assessment: Considerations for the U.S. Foreign Service Institute evaluates the different approaches that exist to assess foreign language proficiency that FSI could potentially use. This report considers the key assessment approaches in the research literature that are appropriate for language testing, including, but not limited to, assessments that use task-based or performance-based approaches, adaptive online test administration, and portfolios.


Language Testing

Language Testing

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  • Author: Robert Lado
  • Publisher:
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 416


Challenges in Language Testing Around the World

Challenges in Language Testing Around the World

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  • Author: Betty Lanteigne
  • Publisher: Springer Nature
  • ISBN: 9813342323
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 553

This book combines insights from language assessment literacy and critical language testing through critical analyses and research about challenges in language assessment around the world. It investigates problematic practices in language testing which are relevant to language test users such as language program directors, testing centers, and language teachers, as well as teachers-in-training in Graduate Diploma and Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics programs. These issues involve aspects of language testing such as test development, test administration, scoring, and interpretation/use of test results. Chapters in this volume discuss insights about language testing policy, testing world languages, developing program-level language tests and tests of specific language skills, and language assessment literacy. In addition, this book identifies two needs in language testing for further examination: the need for collaboration between language test developers, language test users, and language users, and the need to base language tests on real-world language use.


Dictionary of Language Testing

Dictionary of Language Testing

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  • Author: Alan Davies
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • ISBN: 0521658764
  • Category : Foreign Language Study
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 284

This Dictionary of Language Testing contains some 600 entries on language assessment


Handbook of Second Language Assessment

Handbook of Second Language Assessment

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  • Author: Dina Tsagari
  • Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
  • ISBN: 1501500864
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 460

Second language assessment is ubiquitous. It has found its way from education into questions about access to professions and migration. This volume focuses on the main debates and research advances in second language assessment in the last fifty years or so, showing the influence of linguistics, politics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and psychometrics. There are four parts which, when taken together, address the principles and practices of second language assessment while considering its impact on society. Read separately, each part addresses a different aspect of the field. Part I deals with the conceptual foundations of second language assessment with chapters on the purposes of assessment, and standards and frameworks, as well as matters of scoring, quality assurance, and test validation. Part II addresses the theory and practice of assessing different second language skills including aspects like intercultural competence and fluency. Part III examines the challenges and opportunities of second language assessment in a range of contexts. In addition to chapters on second language assessment on a national scale, there are chapters on learning-oriented assessment, as well as the uses of second language assessment in the workplace and for migration. Part IV examines a selection of important issues in the field that deserve attention. These include the alignment of language examinations to external frameworks, the increasing use of technology to both deliver and score second language tests, the responsibilities associated with assessing test takers with special needs, the concept of 'voice' in second language assessment, and assessment literacy for teachers and other test and score users.


Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing

Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing

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  • Author: Lyle F. Bachman
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • ISBN: 9780194370035
  • Category : Foreign Language Study
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 428

Offers a discussion of the basic concerns which underlie the development and use of language tests. Presenting a synthesis of research on testing, this book is useful for students on teacher education courses. It is also helpful for those professionally involved in designing and administering tests, acting as a complement to 'how to' books.


Local Language Testing

Local Language Testing

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  • Author: Slobodanka Dimova
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 0429960328
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 228

Local Language Testing: Design, Implementation, and Development describes the language testing practice that exists in the intermediate space between large-scale standardized testing and classroom assessment, an area that is rarely addressed in the language testing and assessment literature. Covering both theory and practice, the book focuses on the advantages of local tests, fosters and encourages their use, and provides suggested ideas for their development and maintenance. The authors include examples of operational tests with well-proven track records and discuss: the ability of local tests to represent local contexts and values, explicitly and purposefully embed test results within instructional practice, and provide data for program evaluation and research; local testing practices grounded in the theoretical principles of language testing, drawing from experiences with local testing and providing practical examples of local language tests, illustrating how they can be designed to effectively function within and across different institutional contexts; examples of how local language tests and assessments are developed for use within a specific context and how they serve a variety of purposes (e.g., entry-level proficiency testing, placement testing, international teaching assistant testing, writing assessment, and program evaluation). Aimed at language program directors, graduate students, and researchers involved in language program development and evaluation, this is a timely book in that it focuses on the advantages of local tests, fosters and encourages their use, and outlines their development and maintenance. It constitutes essential reading for language program directors, graduate students, and researchers involved in language program development and evaluation.


Building a Validity Argument for the Test of English as a Foreign LanguageTM

Building a Validity Argument for the Test of English as a Foreign LanguageTM

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  • Author: Carol A. Chapelle
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 1135602859
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 437

The Test of English as a Foreign Language TM (TOEFL®) is used by more universities worldwide than any other test to assess English language proficiency for academic admission and placement decisions, and to guide English language instruction. This landmark volume provides a detailed description and analysis of Educational Testing Service’s research and development efforts to develop a major revision of the TOEFL® test. The result is a book that serves as a case study of test design drawing upon theory in the complex domain of English language proficiency while attempting to meet standards of educational measurement. Building a Validity Argument for the Test of English as a Foreign LanguageTM is distinctive in its attempt to develop a coherent story of the rationale for a test or its revision, explain the research and development process, and provide the results of the validation process. Through its treatment of one test, it expands on and tests principles and approaches to educational measurement, providing an in-depth, integrated perspective on the overall process of test revision. Moreover, because the conceptual foundation and history are presented alongside the empirical studies and validity argument, these sometimes disparate areas are presented in a way that demonstrates their connections – an approach which represents a departure from, or extension of, conventional materials on test revision. This volume is particularly relevant for professionals and graduate students in educational measurement, applied linguistics, and second language acquisition as well as anyone interested in assessment issues.