This paper employs a Critical Cultural Political Economy of Education perspective to examine how, why, and to what effect the English proficiency rankings of a for-profit edu-business acquire the authority often granted to international large-scale assessments. Analysing the EF English Proficiency Index in the context of Ecuador illustrates how…

"The English Speaking Achievement Test for Japanese Junior High School Students" (ESAT-J) was introduced to contribute to levelling up public English education in Tokyo in 2022. Critics, however, have made claims in the mass media against the use of the test and stakeholder groups have called for its cancellation. This paper presents an…

The Ordinary National Educational Test (O-NET), the national examination in Thailand, plays as a high-stakes test at an upper secondary school level as it can be used as a tool for several purposes in education such as gatekeepers for the university entry and measures for the teaching quality evaluation. English, out of the five core subjects in…

This case study of Al-Aqsa School attempts to show that Cambridge Young Learners English Tests (YLE) may hurt learners' motivation and teaching process. The paper aims to highlight the adoption of Cambridge YLE proficiency tests and explore learners and teachers' perception of those tests. Also, providing alternative yardstick measures learners'…

In this interview, JD Brown reflects on language testing/assessment. He suggests that language testing can be seen as a continuum with hard core positivist approaches at one end and post modernist interpretive perspectives at the other, and also argues that norm referencing (be it proficiency, placement, or aptitude testing) and criterion…

This article describes the National Center Test for University Admissions, a unified national test in Japan, which is taken by 500,000 students every year. It states that implementation of the Center Test began in 1990, with the English component consisting only of the written section until 2005, when the listening section was first implemented…

Hearing-impaired students (N=508) were administered a language-arts achievement test containing 25 items drawn from a computerized item bank developed with hearing students. Results showed that the items did not form an adequate Rasch-based test. Furthermore, the difficulty order of the items differed in the hearing and hearing-impaired…

Criticizes the revised examination for the English Certificate, Oral Section, on these points: validity and reliability of the examination forms, and claims of authenticity, range, and accuracy in evaluation of language competence in the section called "Everyday Situations." (IFS/WGA)

ALTHOUGH MOST EDUCATORS AGREE THAT EXAMINATIONS PERFORM AN IMPORTANT FUNCTION IN APPRAISING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, SOME CLAIM THAT MULTIPLE CHOICE TESTS DEGENERATE INTO A GAME OF "BEAT THE MONKEY," I.E., ANSWERING MORE THAN 25 PERCENT OF THE ITEMS CORRECTLY, THE RATING EVEN A MONKEY COULD BE EXPECTED TO RECEIVE. SAMPLE STUDIES REVEAL THAT THE…

Ten groups (2-5 members each) of tenth-grade Israeli English-as-a-Second-Language students took first a group quiz and then individual quizzes on the same material. Comparison of the results showed that, especially for weaker students, group work and group grades offered some advantages over individual work and assessment. (CNP)

TESTING IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAMS BECAUSE THE NATURE OF AUDIOLINGUAL TEACHING REQUIRES GREAT AMOUNTS OF FEEDBACK, REINFORCEMENT, AND VERIFICATION. TESTS CAN MEASURE APTITUDE AND ACHIEVEMENT, CAN DIAGNOSE, AND, MOST IMPORTANT, CAN BE AN EFFECTIVE TEACHING TOOL. MANY TEACHING TECHNIQUES ARE EXCELLENT FOR TESTING AND SOME…

Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores have declined during the last 14 years. Similar score declines have been observed in many different testing programs, many groups, and tested areas. The declines, while not large in any given year, have been consistent over time, area, and group. The period around 1965 is critical for the interpretation of…

THIS STUDY, CONDUCTED BY THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION (MLA) WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE, WAS DESIGNED TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE FRENCH, GERMAN, AND SPANISH SKILL TESTS OF THE MLA COOPERATIVE FOREIGN LANGUAGE TESTS AND THE MLA PROFICIENCY TESTS FOR TEACHERS AND ADVANCED STUDENTS MEASURE ALONG A CONTINUUM OR WHETHER…

This study compares a self-assessment instrument and achievement test containing the same questions and administered at different levels of proficiency in order to investigate the reliability of second language self-assessment for student placement, diagnostic purposes, and achievement testing. Subjects were English as a Foreign Language students…

THE DIRECTOR OF TESTING OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION (MLA), WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF 28 SELECTED IMPARTIAL PROFESSIONALS, PRODUCED INDIVIDUALLY AND IN TEAMS THIS CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE MLA FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TESTS IN ORDER TO POINT OUT EXISTING DEFICIENCIES AND TO SUGGEST IMPROVEMENTS IN FUTURE TEST DEVELOPMENT. THIS HANDBOOK…