In order to address the needs of the continually growing number of Chinese language learners, the present study developed and presented initial validation of a 100-item Chinese vocabulary proficiency test (CVPT) for learners of Chinese as a second/foreign language (CS/FL) using Item Response Theory among 170 CS/FL learners from Indonesia and 354…

Many candidates undertaking high-stakes English language proficiency tests for academic enrolment do not achieve the results they need for reasons including linguistic unreadiness, test unpreparedness, illness, an unfavourable configuration of tasks, or administrative and marking errors. Owing to the importance of meeting goals or out of a belief…

In the realm of language proficiency assessments, the domain description inference and the extrapolation inference are key components of a validity argument. Biber et al.'s description of the lexicogrammatical features of the spoken and written registers in the T2K-SWAL corpus has served as support for the TOEFL iBT test's domain description and…

This study explores the constructs that underpin three different measures of vocabulary knowledge and investigates the degree to which these three measures correlate with, and are able to predict, measures of second language (L2) listening and reading. Word frequency structured vocabulary tests tapping "receptive/orthographic (RecOrth)…

The Common Educational Proficiency Assessment (CEPA) is a large-scale, high-stakes, English language proficiency/placement test administered in the United Arab Emirates to Emirati nationals in their final year of secondary education or Grade 12. The purpose of the CEPA is to place students into English classes at the appropriate government…

English has been an official language of Hong Kong since it was first introduced to the region in the 1840s. Since then, its influence has invariably been strong and remains so even after 1997, when the sovereignty of the region was returned to China. This special background of English in Hong Kong heavily influences the policy and practices of…

Discusses the purpose of a French-as-a-Second-Language (FSL) placement test designed for students enrolling in FSL at the postsecondary level. The test measures proficiency level in French and consists of three parts: comprehension of a short paragraph, selection of the appropriate statement in a situation, and a fill-in-the-gap part. (JL)

Explores the role of task and task-based assessment in a collegiate foreign language department that shifted its entire undergraduate curriculum from a form-based normative approach to a language-use and language-meaning orientation for instruction. Examines how demands for specificity that characterize task-based assessment contributed…

Student assessment plays a central and important role in teaching and learning. Teachers devote a large part of their preparation time to creating instruments and observation procedures, marking, recording, and synthesizing results in informal and formal reports in their daily teaching. A number of studies of the assessment practices used by…

Links the theory of washback with the broader concept of impact in educational measurement and to the recent debate on construct validity associated with Messick. Notes that for many years it was asserted that language tests negatively impacted teaching and learning, an impact known as washback. (25 references) (Author/CK)

Investigates agreement among teacher-, self-, and peer-assessments of students in the presence of peer feedback. This is done in the context of oral presentation skills of first year undergraduate students of ethnic Chinese background. Findings how that when assessment criteria are firmly set, peer feedback enables students to judge the…

Summarizes findings from investigations into the development and use of a prototype English language task-based performance test. Data included performances by 90 examinees in 13 complex and skill-integrative tasks. Findings indicated that the task-based test could inform intended inferences about examinees' abilities to accomplish specific tasks…

Analyzed Francophone university students' (N=182) performance on eight English-As-a-Second-Language cloze tests (in terms of cloze-taking ability, language knowledge, content domain, and knowledge of contextual constraints). Results revealed that cloze performance was dependent on language factors and nonlinguistic-specific knowledge related to…

Investigates how schemata activated by culturally familiar words might have influenced students' cloze test-taking processes. Subjects were Japanese English-as-a-foreign-language students. Results demonstrate that students who read culturally familiar cloze texts tried to solve more items and generally understood the text better, which resulted in…

Presents a study of how well a set of language proficiency self-ratings fit the predictions of a probabilistic measurement model known as the Rasch Model. Applies the principles of the model to scalar rather than binary item response data. Concludes that scalar analysis of this kind is feasible with self-rating data. (Author/SED)