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…

Looking back to the language testing world of the 1980s in the United Kingdom, we need to be aware that how we perceive or remember ourselves to have been then--whether as individual language testing academics or as corporate language testing organisations--will be shaped by multiple influences. Although we may have been present at and shared in…

Whenever a major intelligence or achievement test is revised, there is always renewed interest in the underlying structure of the test as well as a renewed interest in the scoring, administration, and interpretation changes. In this interview, Amy Gabel discusses the most recent revision of the "Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fifth…

Uysal's article provides a research agenda for IELTS and lists numerous issues concerning the test's reliability and validity. She asks useful questions, but her analysis ignores the uncertainties inherent in all language test development and the wider social and political context of international high-stakes language testing. In this response, I…

Just like buildings, tests are designed and built for specific purposes, people, and uses. However, both buildings and tests grow and change over time as the needs of their users change. Sometimes, they are also both used for purposes other than those intended in the original designs. This paper explores architecture as a metaphor for language…

Over the past few decades, educators in general, and language teachers in specific, were more inclined towards using testing techniques that resembled real-life language performance. Unlike traditional paper-and-pencil language tests that required test-takers to attempt tests that were based on artificial and contrived language content,…

This article presents an interview with Professor Kenji Ohtomo who retired in March 2006 from the post of Dean, College of Applied International Studies, Tokiwa University, Mito, in Japan. Professor Ohtomo is currently a Professor Emeritus at the University of Tsukuba and Honorary President of the Japan Language Testing Association, of which he…

Discusses two studies that explore the possibilities of adopting the C-Test (which involves the deletion of the second half of every other word in the text, leaving the first and last sentence intact) for testing Hebrew. Suggests the test be used with the cloze test for assessing similar things. (SED)

Presents a framework that takes as its starting point an analysis of test purpose, and then shows how purpose can be systematically related to test design. Argues that the way forward for vocabulary assessment is to take account of test purposes in the design and validation of tests, as well as considering an interactionalist approach to construct…

This discussion focuses on the role of textbooks in test washback, using the case of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) to examine prevalent practices in test preparation and the materials used in such preparation. (Author/VWL)

The possible effects of applying new assessment techniques to second language learning is dramatized by two contrasting scenarios. The first describes a high school Spanish class as we might find it today: the teaching is effective, but the best results are not being obtained. The second scenario is set in the year 1990. Here, applications of…

Describes the use of an exercise to assess overall language proficiency for placement purposes. The "information gap" test is based on a gapped text which the candidate must complete by asking the tester appropriate questions and writing down the answers. Test rankings have been found to correlate highly with teachers' rankings. (SED)

Provides a broad overview of computerized testing issues with an emphasis on computer-adaptive testing (CAT). A survey of the potential benefits and drawbacks of CAT are given, the process of CAT development is described; and some L2 instruments developed to assess various language skills are summarized. (Author/VWL)

The use by interviewers of a deliberate, prearranged, and consistent overall structure, comprising warm-up, level check, probes, and wind-up, can strengthen the content validity of interview tests. Moreover, the flexibility necessary for elicitation is increased if an established battery of well-structured tasks exists for candidates to perform.…

Discusses the provisional proficiency guidelines of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and explores their application to two important areas of foreign language education--testing and curriculum development. Reviews the features of proficiency and achievement tests and describes two proficiency-based curriculum projects.…