The implicit sociocultural functioning of the "content" of high-stakes English language proficiency tests is a rarely-explored concern in language assessment. This study attempts to bring critical views of language testing and critical discourse studies together to examine the content of IELTS preparation materials in search of topics…

During the past two decades, an increasing number of European countries have introduced language requirements for residency, citizenship, and sometimes even for entry to the country and family reunification. As a result, democratic rights as well as basic human rights have come to depend upon an individual's ability to obtain a certain score on a…

This commentary highlights major validation challenges raised, explicitly or implicitly, from the four articles in the special issue on "Validity Considerations for Assessing Language Proficiency in Young Language Minority Students." They are concerned with: (1) the construct definition in consideration of young language-minority (LM)…

In this commentary, we describe the English language placement adaptations we were required to make due to the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic. It includes a brief description of our placement test battery which was adapted to address our institution's move to a remote teaching/learning mode. A discussion of the major challenges we experienced, their…

Responding to the challenge of delivering valid assessments during the unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic was certainly not easy. However, the efforts will undoubtedly lead to developments in the field of language assessment. This special issue closes with a brief summary of the commentaries it contains and raises some unanswered…

In Japanese secondary schools, speaking assessment in English classrooms is designed, conducted, and scored by teachers. Although the assessment is intended to be used for summative and formative purposes, it is not regularly or adequately practiced. This paper reports the problems (i.e., lack of continuous speaking assessment, limited speaking…

Drawing on the framework of invariant measurement from Rasch measurement theory, the purpose of this study is to psychometrically evaluate the 20 language and teaching skill domains of the International Teaching Assistant (ITA) Test using the many-facet Rasch model and to empirically explore performance differences between females and males in…

Jessica Wu is Research and Development Program Director at the Language Training and Testing Center (LTTC) in Taipei, Taiwan. Jessica has been deeply involved in the development and validation of the General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) in addition to a number of other foreign language testing programs. Her research focuses on speaking…

This mixed methods study compared IELTS examiners' scores when assessing spoken performances under live and two 'non-live' testing conditions using audio and video recordings. Six IELTS examiners assessed 36 test-takers' performances under the live, audio, and video rating conditions. Scores in the three rating modes were calibrated using the…

The COVID-19 pandemic led to rapid innovation among language assessment developers who had to adapt their testing processes to address various restrictions from governments and institutions. This overview introduces some of the challenges and opportunities test developers grappled with during this period as well as introduces the six commentaries…

Thinking skills play a critical role in determining language performance. Recent advancement in cognitive diagnostic modelling (CDM) provides a powerful tool for obtaining fine-grained information regarding these thinking skills during reading. Studies are scant, however, exploring the relations between thinking skills and language performance,…

The field of language testing has made great strides in measuring language use. It is a monolingual construct, however, that anchors standardized language testing operations and classroom practices. Language use and performance research, see for example the MLJ special issue of 2011, demands that language testing operations also consider…

Many migrants have had few opportunities to develop functional literacy skills, even in their L1. Even so, migration and integration policies in Western host societies often assume literacy skills and fail to consider accommodations for low-literate migrants. Valid, reliable instruments to identify low-literate migrants and policy-oriented…

Prompted by Taiwanese university students' increasing demand for English proficiency assessment, the absence of a test designed specifically for this demographic subgroup, and the lack of a localized and freely-accessible proficiency measure, this project set out to develop and validate a computerized adaptive English proficiency testing (E-CAT)…

The following interview was conducted with Catherine Elder in spring of 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. Cathie has had a varied career in language testing, including work at universities in Australia and New Zealand and at the Language Testing Resource Center in Melbourne. In this interview, Cathie shares some highlights of her somewhat…