When English Language Arts (ELA) students are not engaged in ELA coursework, they miss out on opportunities to practice reading, writing, speaking, listening, and--most importantly--critical thinking. The purpose of these two cycles of Action Research was to investigate the authentic pedagogies of ELA teachers at Ryken private preparatory school…

This article discusses the unique experiences and methods of independent examination of the level of communicative (specifically receptive and productive) English language skills of the first year undergraduate students studying English as the first foreign language in a Russian university, who previously passed the Unified State Exam (USE) in…

The Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) fulfills federal requirements for assessing the English language proficiency of English language learners (ELLs) in kindergarten through grade 12 in four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. TELPAS assesses students in alignment with the Texas English…

This is a comprehensive review of the salient key features of the actual English instructional practices in Saudi Arabia. The goal of this work is to gain insights into the practices and pedagogic approaches to English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching currently employed in this country. In particular, we identify the following central features…

How to compute and report subscores for a test that was originally designed for reporting scores on a unidimensional scale has been a topic of interest in recent years. In the research reported here, we describe an application of multidimensional item response theory to identify a subscore structure in a test designed for reporting results using a…

In this revised edition in the popular New Ways Series, teachers have once again been given an opportunity to show how they do assessment in their classrooms on an everyday basis. Often feeling helpless when confronted with large-scale standardized testing practices, teachers here offer classroom testing created with the direct aim of helping…

This chapter addresses different modalities of assessment, provides an overview of the assessment processes of the basic skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) tested by the Cambridge First Certificate in English (FCE) examination, and explores the ways in which the FCE Online Course and Tester--the resources provided through the…

Specific proposals for improving listening skills. (CH)

Intended as a guide for educators interested in developing oral communication programs, this booklet contains activities and assessment instruments for use at all grade levels from prekindergarten through senior high school. The first section presents activities designed to develop oral communication skills and check lists to assess those skills.…

The four papers in this collection were drawn from a symposium convened to review the state of the art in speaking and listening assessment at all educational levels and to suggest strategies for addressing the technical issues, particularly those relating to test bias and the use of rating scales, that speaking and listening assessors often face.…

This report documents the Massachusetts Statewide Assessment of Basic Skills in speaking and listening that was conducted during the 1979-80 school year. The four chapters of the report provide information about (1) the survey design and methodology, (2) the performance of twelfth grade students in listening, (3) the results of two measures of…

Summarizes research on self-assessment in second-language testing using a meta-analysis on 60 correlations reported in second-language-testing literature. Self-assessments and teacher assessments of recently instructed English-as-a-Second-Language learners' functional English skills revealed differential validities for self-assessment and teacher…

This book provides practical strategies and tools for assessing and teaching even the most hard to reach English language learners across the content areas. Syrja offers educators the latest information on working with ELLs (including using formative assessments) and provides a wealth of classroom-tested models and measures. These tools have…

Prepared as part of a series applying recent research in oral and written communication to classroom practice, this booklet reviews a number of concepts and issues important to communication assessment. The first section of the booklet discusses several issues related to assessing communication at both district and classroom levels. Issues…