To explore the washback of the HSK on students learning Chinese as a Second Language (CSL), the study surveyed 1,616 SCL students from 25 different mother tongue backgrounds and interviewed international students studying in China through questionnaire and interview. The following was found in this study: (a) The HSK influenced both the process…

In the use of English programme of the general studies unit of Nigerian universities, computer based testing (CBT) has been introduced as a novel approach for writing examinations, as against the paper based test (PBT). For this reason, there is a need to ascertain students' perceptions of computer-based tests in the use of English Programme,…

In 2016, the Office of the Higher Education Commission issued a directive requiring all higher education institutions in Thailand to have their students take a standardized English proficiency test. According to the directive, the test's results had to align with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). In response to this…

Metalanguage is an important part of teacher talk in L2 classrooms. The present study examined the occurrence and type of metalinguistic terms in teacher feedback and their relationship with the patterns of learner uptake and the effectiveness of teacher feedback. A total of eight teachers and nine classes participated in the study. Four to six…

Background: In Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes, there are concerns about student teachers' English language proficiency. Aim: To discuss the first iteration of the PrimTEd English language and literacy test and analyse the results for information about the test instrument and about student teacher attainment. Setting: South African…

The report brief describes district-level ACT test results for AISD students in the 2015-2016 school year.

Test impact, widely recognized as the influence of testing on learning and teaching, affects a set of stakeholders including test takers. This study defines the construct of test impact on test takers and describes the construction and validation of the scale of test impact on test takers (TITT). 410 participants having passed a language test in…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between Chinese MA students' depth of vocabulary knowledge, their use of L2 vocabulary learning strategy (VLS), and the types of L2 contact they encountered while studying abroad. 165 Chinese MA students from a British university participated in the study by filling out the questionnaire…

The present study investigated the use of vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) by undergraduate Thai EFL students studying Vietnamese as their third language (L3) and examined if there is any relationship between the learners' strategy use and their success. A five-point Likert-scale questionnaire containing 39 items adapted from Schmitt's (1997)…

Washback and fairness are interrelated in validity research, and thus an investigation into washback inevitably involves fairness. This article reports Phase One of a washback study of "Test for English Majors for Grade Eight" (TEM8). Phase One was a questionnaire survey administered to university program administrators. Two research…

Developing the skill to form derivatives is a slow incremental process even for native speakers of English, starting in elementary school and continuing through high school. In fact, it appears to be a universally challenging area of the lexicon. Nevertheless, studies have shown that it is one of the most important skills to possess for a learner…

This study investigates the use of pragmatic markers (PMs) by learners of English at varying proficiency levels. The study analyzes data from a university-level oral proficiency exam that categorized Chinese and Korean English-as-a-second-language (ESL) speakers into four proficiency levels and compares data with those of native speakers taking…

Metaphoric language and understanding such a language have been of central concern in not only private language schools for intermediate and advanced learners, but in universities for students whose major is English. Besides, as Ellis (1994) maintains, various individual differences have an effect on students' performance and learning. One of the…

This paper looks at some washbacks of the TOEIC examination on the teachers and students through his own teaching experience with TOEIC preparation courses and interview results from those of a Bangkok's business school.

Feedback to the test taker is a defining characteristic of diagnostic language testing (Alderson, 2005). This article reports on a study that investigated how much and in what ways students at a Taiwan university perceived the feedback to be useful on an online multiple-choice diagnostic English grammar test, both in general and by students of…