Turkish and Foreign Languages Research and Application Center (TÖMER) is one of the important institutions for learning Turkish as a foreign language. In these institutions, proficiency tests are applied at the end of each level. However, test applications in TÖMERs vary between each center as there is no shared program in teaching Turkish as a…

The reform of National College Entrance Examination in Zhejiang Province, China has aroused widespread attention since it was released in 2014. It is notable that new English writing test types were adopted in the English subtest. The continuation task and summary writing become a challenge as well as a promoter for English writing teaching and…

The purpose of this article of reflection is to raise awareness of how poor design of language assessments may have detrimental effects, if crucial qualities and technicalities of test design are not met. The article first discusses these central qualities for useful language assessments. Then, guidelines for creating listening assessments, as an…

Inattentiveness and social desirability might be particularly problematic for self-report scales in creativity and arts research. Respondents who are inattentive or who present themselves favorably will score highly on scales that yield positively skewed distributions and that assess socially valued constructs, such as scales measuring creativity…

The effect of high-stakes language tests on teaching and learning a language is usually known as washback. The true nature of test washback can be understood only by taking account of the educational, cultural, political and social contexts in which the test operates. Nevertheless, little research has explored the factors that affect the nature of…

Admission in English-medium universities or institutions of higher education depends on the results obtained by candidates in large-scale proficiency tests including Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) internet-based test (iBT). The structure and administration procedure of the TOEFL iBT speaking test leaves no room for carrying out…

Given that teaching Arabic, as a second language has become increasingly significant in the present context, it follows that there is an urgent and pressing need to develop efficient learning tools as well as adequate measuring tools for testing the learner's development. There are numerous problems associated with measuring a learner's…

In the test-centric Thai education system, results on national exams are often viewed as indicators of educational success. These exams use multiple-choice which can have detrimental effects on students' attitudes and learning. If school assessments also rely on multiple-choice exams, the situation would be worrying, yet there is little data…

This paper reports on the proposed transfer of a paper-based English proficiency exam to an online platform. We discuss both the potential predetermined advantages, which were the impetus for the project, and also some emergent benefits, which prompted an in-depth analysis and reconceptualisation of the exam's role, which in turn we hope will…

Spain is currently living a transitional situation. In 2013 a new educational law was passed, the Organic Law that Modifies the Quality of Education (LOMCE). That law, among many other aspects, introduces the use of standardized external tests either to (1) guide or provide suggestions for the educational track, or (2) to obtain inferences towards…

This article reviews a selected sample of 70 empirical studies in journal articles and doctoral dissertations on language assessment in China between 2011 and 2018. Following a brief introduction to the history and current state of language assessment in China, the article presents a critical review of language assessment research on six themes…

T&I programmes aim to produce self-reliant graduates capable of judging their own work against agreed criteria and increasing their levels of competence over the course of their careers. An essential element to achieve this goal is student-centred assessment, i.e. 'assessment as learning' (AaL) (also known as 'sustainable assessment'), which…

High stake tests are known to drive curricula and affect teachers and learners in numerous ways; what has come to be known as test washback. Thus far, almost all washback studies have focused on national or international language proficiency tests. There are little, if any, researches addressing the washback of high stake tests of English…

In educational assessments two types of missing responses can be discerned: items can be "not reached" or "skipped". Both types of omissions may be related to the test taker's proficiency, resulting in non-ignorable missingness. This paper proposes to model not reached and skipped items as part of the response process, using…

Recent Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) analyses find that cyber charter schools in seventeen states show consistently low reading and mathematics value-added test scores compared to traditional public schools serving comparable students. This generally accords with prior research. We hypothesize that the relatively poor…