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…

Opinions differ on the importance of the native speaker's concept for language teaching and testing. This Commentary maintains that it is important and seeks to explain why. Three types of grammar are distinguished, the individual's, the community's and the human faculty of language. For first language teaching and testing it is the community's…

This article discusses the implications of "multicompetence" (Cook, 1991), defined as an individual's knowledge of more than one language, for language assessment. The growing psycholinguistic evidence highlighting variability in native speaker performance as a result of multicompetence is reviewed, evidence that further questions the validity of…

Discusses attitudes to types of English language use--English as a second language, English as a foreign language, and English as a mother tongue (EMT)--as their use is demonstrated by tests. Concludes that EMT status is uncertain but that a test does provide a normative goal description. (SED)

Discusses criteria used in assessing language for specific purposes tests. Examines the issue of separability of language and content and reinforces points made by Jacoby and McNamara (1999) that second language assessments based entirely on linguistic criteria may fail to satisfy the purpose of the test user, whereas the use of indigenous…

Native speakers act as standard-providers, evaluators, and the evaluated in the development of oral proficiency interviews. Thus, proficiency guidelines cannot be accepted as valid until there is evidence that oral interviews and rating scales mirror the process of the native speaker, both in evaluating and in exhibiting proficiency. (CB)

Although research on bilingualism in the schools shows the importance of measuring both English and Spanish language skills regularly, the testing of Spanish falls behind in both quality and frequency. Concerted multidisciplinary cooperation among bilingual educators, linguists, and psychometricians is now needed to produce a variety of valid…

Responds to Michael Canale's paper, "Considerations in the Testing of Reading and Listening Proficiency." Approaches Canale's three points of discussion from a textual point of view. Discusses the kinds of language materials likely to be encountered in texts at selected proficiency levels and how this material may be tested. (SED)

Pedagogical and administrative problems in teaching English to native speakers are reviewed, including criteria for students and teachers and lack of a graded syllabus. Guidelines for solving these problems are proposed. (LB)

Examines ways in which meaning is extracted in authentic language contexts and claims that whatever level of language people use deviates from some putative ideal. Such deviant use of language is common to everyday conversation. Examines two common contexts in which authentic but deviant language is the medium of communication. (Author SED)

The perceptions of an administrator embroiled for several years in the language issue in Quebec are briefly summarized in this paper. Before the first legislation concerning language (Bill 63) was passed, it became clear that in spite of the fact that Quebec was the home for a large number of French immigrants, French language and culture were in…

Many researchers and practitioners maintain that ACTFL's efforts to improve instructional practices and promote proficiency assessments tied to descriptors of what learners can do in real life have contributed significantly to second language teaching and testing. Similar endeavors in the area of research, however, are critically needed. Focusing…