Books in the Language Testing and Evaluation series

C-Tests bestehen aus mehreren kurzen Texten, in denen die zweite Hälfte jedes zweiten Wortes fehlt. Sie gelten in der Regel als objektives, reliables, valides und ökonomisches Instrument zur Messung allgemeiner Sprachkompetenz und werden mittlerweile in einer Vielzahl von Kontexten eingesetzt. Der vorliegende Sammelband illustriert den aktuellen Stand der (anwendungsbezogenen) C-Test-Forschung ¿ mit einem Schwerpunkt auf der zentralen Frage der Konstruktvalidität. C-Tests consist of several short texts in which the second half of every second word has been deleted. As a rule, they are considered to be objective, reliable, valid and economical tests of general language proficiency. C-Tests are currently used in many contexts, including high-stakes applications. The present collection of papers illustrates the state of the art of (application-oriented) C-Test research, with a special focus on construct validity.

This book presents a unique scale development project, with a focus on the validation of two rating scales for assessing academic speaking. It reports on a multi-method study designed to scale the level descriptors on the basis of expert judgments and performance data. The characteristics of the levels offer a specification of academic speaking.

The main outcomes of the present research are the Text Classification Profile that includes the qualitative and quantitative description of linguistic characteristics pertinent in Intermediate and Advanced English reading texts and the L.A.S.T. Text Difficulty Index that makes possible the automatic classification of B2 and C1 English reading texts.

This book describes the development and argument-based validation of a web-based test of second language pragmatics for learners of English. The test has a sociopragmatic orientation and strives for broad coverage of the construct by assessing metapragmatic judgment as well as the ability to co-construct discourse.

How can intercultural language learning be accounted for in foreign language teaching? By means of new assessments, the author investigates the development of language competences central to ICC in relation to learning opportunities as experienced by German learners of English. Audiovisual media were found as a major input factor in developing ICC.

Black and Wiliam's (1998) influential article "Inside the Black Box" prompted an increasing interest in assessment processes within the classroom. This book reports on a detailed ethnographic study of Indonesian as a Foreign Language classrooms at two consecutive levels of schooling in Australia.

The need for reliable and valid assessments of translator and interpreter (T&I) skills has been widely acknowledged inside and outside these professions and the (language) testing community. The focus of the volume is on assessment of T&I leading to authorization, accreditation, registration and certification in different countries of the world.

Collaboration in Language Testing and Assessment

Includes three sequenced studies that define interaction in paired oral assessment through the verbal protocols of learners of Spanish and their assessors.

Accent and Listening Assessment

The diagnostic assessment of writing is an important aspect of language testing which has often been neclected in the literature. However, it is an area which poses special challenges to practioners both in the classroom and in large-scale testing situations. This book presents a study which set out to develop and validate a rating scale specifically designed for the diagnostic assessment of writing in an academic English setting. The scale was developed by analysing a large number of writing performances produced by both native speakers of English and learners of English as an additional language. The rating scale was then validated using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The study showed that a detailed data-based rating scale is more valid and more useful for diagnostic purposes than the more commonly used impressionistic rating scale.

Provides an overview of language and (inter-)cultural assessment practices in European higher education and beyond (Australia, China and Japan). This title addresses the following questions: What sort of assessment is taking place? What purposes does it serve?

This study investigates how cognitive and contextual characteristics of multiple-choice reading tasks impact empirical difficulty in a reading test. Results provide evidence of construct validity and are also relevant for teaching practice aiming at the teaching of reading strategies.

This volume, written by distinguished scholars, researchers and practitioners in the field of language testing and assessment, includes selected papers presented at the 1st International Conference of Language Testing and Assessment (ICLTA). It is dedicated to the memory of Pavlos Pavlou, esteemed faculty member at the University of Cyprus.

Paired speaking tests are increasingly used in both low- and high-stakes second language assessment contexts. This book presents a study which explores the interactional features of a paired speaking test that were salient to raters and the extent to which raters viewed the performances as separable.

Classroom-Based Language Assessment

Dieser Band illustriert den aktuellen Stand der C-Test-Forschung. C-Tests bestehen aus mehreren kurzen Texten, in denen fehlende Wortteile zu rekonstruieren sind. This collection of papers illustrates the state of the art of C-Test research. C-Tests consist of several short texts in which the missing parts of words have to be reconstructed.

How did the (old) Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) assess the Chinese proficiency of non-native speakers of Chinese? 30 years of research have been synthesized into an argument-based approach for validity for the HSK, finally yielding into an argument about the validity of the most widespread language proficiency test for Chinese as a foreign language.

This book explores how language test-takers with different extraversion and proficiency levels co-construct interaction in group oral tests. It compares interactions across three tasks and between two group sizes. The findings offer useful implications for international language testing by enhancing our understanding of the group test construct.