Language Testing and Assessment: An Advanced Resource Book

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ISBN: 9780415339469 | 0415339464
Cover: Hardcover
Copyright: 1/5/2007

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Language Testing and Assessment: Introduces students to the key methods and debates surrounding language testing and assessment explores the uses, benefits and problems that surround language testing on children, students, asylum seekers and many other groups Presents and comments on key readings and articles from leading names in the field is supported by a companion website Written by experienced teachers and researchers in the field, Language Testing and Assessment is an essential resource for students and researchers of Applied Linguistics.

List of figures and tables	p. xiv
Series editors' preface	p. xv
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
How to use this book	p. xix
Introduction	p. 1
Introducing validity	p. 3
Introduction	p. 3
Three 'types' of validity in early theory	p. 4
Cutting the validity cake	p. 12
Summary	p. 21
Classroom assessment	p. 23
Introduction	p. 23
Pedagogy and the measurement paradigm	p. 25
Summary	p. 35
Constructs and models	p. 36
Introduction	p. 36
The nature of models	p. 37
Canale and Swain's model of communicative competence	p. 38
Canale's adaptations	p. 39
Bachman's model of communicative language ability (CLA)	p. 42
Celce-Murcia, Dornyei and Thurrell's model of communicative competence	p. 47
Interactional competence	p. 49
From models to frameworks: validity models and performance conditions	p. 50
Summary	p. 51
Test specifications and designs	p. 52
Introduction	p. 52
Planning in test authoring	p. 53
Guiding language versus samples	p. 54
Congruence (or fit-to-spec)	p. 55
How do test questions originate? Reverse engineering and archetypes	p. 56
Reverse engineering	p. 57
Where do test items come from? What is the true genesis of a test question?	p. 58
Spec-driven test assembly, operation and maintenance	p. 59
Towards spec-driven theory	p. 60
Summary	p. 61
Writing items and tasks	p. 62
Introduction	p. 62
Evidence-centred design (ECD)	p. 63
Describing items and tasks	p. 69
Tasks and teaching	p. 73
Summary	p. 75
Prototypes, prototyping and field tests	p. 76
Introduction	p. 76
Prototypes	p. 76
Prototyping	p. 79
Field testing	p. 85
The iterative nature of the process	p. 89
Summary	p. 89
Scoring language tests and assessments	p. 91
Introduction	p. 91
Defining the quality of language	p. 93
Developing scoring systems	p. 96
Intuition and data	p. 98
Problems with scales	p. 98
Scoring in classical test theory	p. 101
Reliability	p. 104
Score transformations	p. 108
Item response theory	p. 109
Endowing a score with special meaning	p. 111
Summary	p. 114
Administration and training	p. 115
Introduction	p. 115
Getting things done	p. 117
Quality management systems	p. 127
Constraints	p. 128
Test administration within the ECD delivery model	p. 129
Rater and interlocutor training	p. 131
Security	p. 132
Test administration for disabled people	p. 135
Summary	p. 137
Fairness, ethics and standards	p. 138
Introduction	p. 138
Professionalism as a community of practitioners	p. 138
Professionalism and democracy	p. 141
Consequentialism	p. 142
On power and pessimism	p. 144
Professional conduct: standards for practice	p. 155
Responsibilities of language testers and their limitations	p. 156
Accountability	p. 157
Summary	p. 158
Arguments and evidence in test validation and use	p. 159
Introduction	p. 159
Argumentation as solution	p. 162
The form of an argument	p. 164
Argument in evidence-centred design	p. 167
Arguments in language testing	p. 168
Arguments and feasibility	p. 176
Argument, evidence and ethics	p. 176
Summary	p. 178
Extension	p. 179
Construct validity	p. 181
'Construct validity in psychological tests'	p. 182
Pedagogic assessment	p. 192
'Reconceptualizing validity for classroom assessment'	p. 193
Investigating communicative competence	p. 203
'Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing'	p. 203
Optimal specification design	p. 212
Testcraft: A Teacher's Guide to Writing and Using Language Test Specifications	p. 212
Washback	p. 221
'Does washback exist?'	p. 222
Researching prototype tasks	p. 230
A Teacher-Verification Study of Speaking and Writing Prototype Tasks for a New TOEFL	p. 230
Scoring performance tests	p. 249
'Scoring procedures for ESL contexts'	p. 250
Interlocutor training and behaviour	p. 258
'Interviewer variation and the co-construction of speaking proficiency'	p. 260
Ethics and professionalism	p. 270
'Demands of being professional in language testing'	p. 270
Validity as argument	p. 278
'An argument-based approach to validity'	p. 278
Exploration	p. 291
Validity - an exploration	p. 293
Assessment in school systems	p. 298
What do items really test?	p. 304
Evolution in action	p. 312
To see a test in a grain of sand...	p. 320
Analysing items and tasks	p. 326
Designing an alternative matrix	p. 333
Administration and alignment	p. 343
In a time far, far away...	p. 352
To boldly go	p. 361
Glossary	p. 369
Notes	p. 378
References	p. 379
Index	p. 396
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Language Testing and Assessment: An Advanced Resource Book

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Language Testing and Assessment: An Advanced Resource Book

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