Expressions of impossibility refer to events that can never or rarely happen, tasks that are difficult or impossible to perform, people or things that are of no use and things that are impossible to find. This study explores the similarities and differences between English and Arabic expressions of impossibility, and the difficulties that…

Time metaphorical expressions are common in all languages and in general as well as specialized contexts. This study explores the similarities and differences between English and Arabic time metaphorical expressions containing , and the difficulties that student-translators have in translating them; the translation strategies they use and the…

In this study we evaluated the stability of item parameters and student scores, using the pre-equated (pre-pandemic) parameters from Spring 2019 and post-equated (post-pandemic) parameters from Spring 2021 in two calibration and equating designs related to item parameter treatment: re-estimating all anchor parameters (Design 1) and holding the…

One of the most important dynamics of the educational setting all over the world is examinations, and some of those are English tests. In Turkey, English tests for the students preparing for the high schools were included in the national exams with the Level Determination Exam (SBS) in 2008 for the first time, and Transition Examination from…

This study explores the similarities and differences between English and Arabic numeral-based formulaic expressions, and difficulties that student-translators have with them. A corpus of English and Arabic numeral-based formulaic expressions containing zero, two, three, twenty, sixty, hundred, thousand…etc., and another corpus of specialized…

This article aims to give a comprehensive guide to planning and designing vocabulary tests which include Identifying the skills to be covered by the test; outlining the course content covered; preparing a table of specifications that shows the skill, content topics and number of questions allocated to each; and preparing the test instructions. The…

The current study aims to determine the effect of multiple-choice, matching, gap-fill and word formation items used in assessing L2 vocabulary on learners' performance and to obtain the learners' views regarding the use of these types of items in vocabulary assessment. The convenience sampling method was selected, and the participants of the study…

Within the scope of educational testing and assessment, setting standards and creating guidelines as a code of practice provide more prolific and sustainable outcomes. In this sense, internationally accepted and regionally accredited principles are suggested for standardization in language testing and assessment practices. Herein, ILTA guidelines…

Pragmatic competence is among the explicitly acknowledged sub-competences that make the communicative competence in any language (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Council of Europe, 2001). Within the notion of pragmatic competence itself, "implicature (implied meanings)" comes to the fore as one of the five main areas there (Levinson, 1983).…

Since the Spanish Educational system is changing and promoting the use of online tests, it was necessary to study the transformation of test items in the "Spanish University Entrance Examination" (IB P.A.U.) to diminish the effect of test delivery changes (through its computerization) in order to affect the least the current model. The…

In alignment studies, expert raters evaluate assessment items against standards and ratings are used to compute various alignment indices. Questions about rater reliability, however, are often ignored or inadequately addressed. This paper reports the results of a generalizability theory study of cognitive demand and rigor ratings of assessment…

This research paper describes the benefits of using an activity-based rhetorical perspective to develop English for specific purposes (ESP) test specifications. This approach expands the potential of ESP test specifications to analyze and describe target language use (TLU) situations, TLU tasks, and ESP test tasks. Multiple activity systems are…

The study reviews translation validated tests and proposes a process-oriented translation test for assessing basic translation skills for freshmen English majors at the faculty of Education. The proposed test is developed based on the process approach to translating and translation teaching, and is confined to translation from English to Arabic.…