All educational testing is intended to have consequences, which are assumed to be beneficial, but tests may also have unintended, negative consequences (Messick, 1989). The issue is particularly important in the case of large-scale standardized tests, such as Australia's "National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy" (NAPLAN), the…

This paper explores the views of nursing and medical domain experts in considering the standards for a specific-purpose English language screening test, the Occupational English Test (OET), for professional registration for immigrant health professionals. Since individuals who score performances in the test setting are often language experts…

The paper by Wilson and Moore (this volume), based on the Messick Lecture delivered in 2006 at the annual Language Testing Research Colloquium in Melbourne, may present a familiar challenge to some language testers: of reading outside one's comfort zone. The distinctive character of language testing lies in its combination of two primary fields of…

Argues that a growing awareness of the fundamentally social character of language assessment challenges a rethinking of priorities and responsibilities in language testing research. This awareness is the result of the treatment of the social character of educational assessment in Messick's (1989) work on validity and by actual changes triggered by…