It is suggested in this column that trends in language testing in the last 15 years have followed trends in modern language teaching. Language testing adopted the tenets of audiolingualism and contrastive analysis, then incorporated test-making procedures of psychometrics, and finally became more eclectic in its approach. (SW)

Presents a summary outline of an approach to oral testing used in the past two years with groups of students completing Fernand Marty's "Active French." (Author/PP)

Describes underlying concepts and current issues in communicative testing and illustrates application of these ideas by examining theoretical constructs, issues, and work done so far in relation to second language testing. (Author/BK)

Examines linguistic, psychometric, and clinical aspects of the Test for Sentence Development, a subtest of a new Dutch language production battery, the Schlichting Test voor Taalproductie. The advantage of the new test is that very young children can be assessed systematically, which was not possible previously. (Author/VWL)

Examined the extent to which years of exposure to a language, amount of language input at home and at school, and amount of exposure to reading and other literacy activities in a language relate to observed bilingual performance in young children as obtained from teacher and parent reports. (VWL)

Provides a history of validation in language testing, discusses current approaches to validation in language testing (hypothesis about testing outcomes, relevant evidence for testing the hypothesis, developing a validity argument), and gives an overview of current challenges in language-test validation (defining the language construct to be…

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…

Examines the relationship between and the relevance of second language acquisition (SLA) and language testing (LT). The relevance of LT to SLA is examined based on written interviews with leading scholars in SLA who were asked about the relevance of LT to their work. (Author/VWL)

Considers how far a code of ethics makes language testing an open profession and notes the dangers of face validity and of hypocrisy. Discusses the need for a code of practice to provide detailed guidance to language testers with regard to their professional responsibilities. (Author/VWL)

Investigates the effects of text organization and response format on second language learners' performance on reading comprehension tests. Analyzes the results of reading comprehension tests that were delivered to Japanese University students. Found that text organization and test format had a significant impact on students' performance.…

This paper reports an assessment of the collocational competence of students of English Linguistics at the University of Granada. This was carried out to meet a two-fold purpose. On the one hand, we aimed to establish a solid corpus-driven approach based upon a systematic and reliable framework for the evaluation of collocational competence in…

It is argued in this article that user actions need to be monitored to understand what has happened during the learning process. Monitoring on its own is not enough; user actions also need to be controlled to some degree so that users can receive the guidance they need to help them to the successful completion of the learning tasks in CALL…

The Task Force on Testing Standards (TFTS) of the International Language Testing Association was charged to produce a report of an international survey of language assessment standards, to provide for exchange of information on standards and for development of a code of practice. Contact with individuals in both language testing and the broader…

This report on language testing research focuses on lessons applied to limited English proficient (LEP) students and programs. First, a review of the history of primary and non-primary language testing is provided. The question of why there is no field of primary language testing is then discussed. The second major section of the report is a…

Two research projects are reported her; one is producing a monolingual Malay dictionary, the second is developing an aphasia test for Thai speakers. (CK)