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This book combines insights from language assessment literacy and critical language testing through critical analyses and research about challenges in language assessment around the world. It investigates problematic practices in language testing which are relevant to language test users such as language program directors, testing centers, and language teachers, as well as teachers-in-training in Graduate Diploma and Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics programs. These issues involve aspects of language testing such as test development, test administration, scoring, and interpretation/use of test results. Chapters in this volume discuss insights about language testing policy, testing world languages, developing program-level language tests and tests of specific language skills, and language assessment literacy. In addition, this book identifies two needs in language testing for further examination: the need for collaboration between language test developers, language test users, and language users, and the need to base language tests on real-world language use.
Current Issues in Language Evaluation, Assessment and Testing: Research and Practice is a collection of research papers, most of which were presented at the 17th World Congress of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), which was held in 2014 in Brisbane, Australia. The volume comprises 15 chapters presenting current research projects and discussing issues related to language testing and the development of language assessment instruments in a variety of contexts around the world. This anthology will be of use to both new and seasoned researchers within the field of Applied Linguistics and TESOL. Teacher educators, language teachers, and language assessment professionals will find this volume equally useful as the papers present current trends in testing and evaluation.
Local Language Testing: Design, Implementation, and Development describes the language testing practice that exists in the intermediate space between large-scale standardized testing and classroom assessment, an area that is rarely addressed in the language testing and assessment literature. Covering both theory and practice, the book focuses on the advantages of local tests, fosters and encourages their use, and provides suggested ideas for their development and maintenance. The authors include examples of operational tests with well-proven track records and discuss: the ability of local tests to represent local contexts and values, explicitly and purposefully embed test results within instructional practice, and provide data for program evaluation and research; local testing practices grounded in the theoretical principles of language testing, drawing from experiences with local testing and providing practical examples of local language tests, illustrating how they can be designed to effectively function within and across different institutional contexts; examples of how local language tests and assessments are developed for use within a specific context and how they serve a variety of purposes (e.g., entry-level proficiency testing, placement testing, international teaching assistant testing, writing assessment, and program evaluation). Aimed at language program directors, graduate students, and researchers involved in language program development and evaluation, this is a timely book in that it focuses on the advantages of local tests, fosters and encourages their use, and outlines their development and maintenance. It constitutes essential reading for language program directors, graduate students, and researchers involved in language program development and evaluation.
The field of language testing and assessment has recognized the importance and underlying theoretical and practical underpinnings of language assessment literacy (LAL), an area that is gradually coming to prominence. This book addresses issues that promote the concept of LAL for language research, teaching, and learning, covering a range of topics. It brings together 14 chapters based on high-stakes and classroom-based studies authored by academics, professionals and researchers in the field. The text examines diverse issues through a multifaceted approach, presenting high-quality contributions that fill a gap in a research area that has long been in need of theoretical and empirical attention.
English language programs depend on the effective assessment of the measure of student proficiency for purposes of placement, advancement, and completion. A variety of approaches may be adopted depending on the program, its objectives, and the students it serves. Teachers and administrators in many contexts may also be required to meet institutional accountability expectations, often externally imposed and related to accreditation standards. The need for appropriate and accurate assessment of student learning, whether internally sought or externally required, provides the opportunity for teachers and administrators to consider current practices, implement reforms, and because of ongoing assessment findings, improve student learning through curricular change, teacher training, and modification of classroom practice. Global Perspectives on Effective Assessment in English Language Teaching explores approaches, models, principles, and techniques related to effective assessment at the classroom and program levels. Covering topics such as language program evaluation, curriculum alignment, and alternative assessment methods, this book is ideal for classroom teachers, administrators, researchers, and students.
This book advocates that teachers should play an active role in high-stakes language testing and that more weight should be given to teacher judgement. This is likely to increase the formative potential of high-stakes tests and provide teachers with a sense of ownership. The implication is that the knowledge and skills they develop by being involved in these tests will feed into their own classroom practices. The book also considers the arguments against teacher involvement, e.g. the contention that teacher involvement might entrench the practice of teaching to the test, or that teachers should not be actively involved in high-stakes language testing because their judgement is insufficiently reliable. Using contributions from a wide range of international educational contexts, the book proposes that a lack of reliability in teacher judgement is best addressed by means of training and not by barring educators from participating in high-stakes language testing. It also argues that their involvement in testing helps teachers to bolster confidence in their own judgement and develop their assessment literacy. Moreover, teacher involvement empowers them to play a role in reforming high-stakes language testing so that it is more equitable and more likely to enhance classroom practices. High-stakes language tests that adopt such an inclusive approach facilitate more effective learning on the part of teachers, which ultimately benefits all their students.
The COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed a new era in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning and teaching by shifting EFL education from the face-to-face learning paradigm to the online and distance learning paradigm. Teachers and students have faced several challenges such as choosing appropriate web tools for presenting content either synchronously or asynchronously, motivating students to participate, and assessing students’ learning. Additionally, this shift to emergency remote online learning represents a challenge for students, particularly with managing their own learning. Taking into account that many students attend low-income schools with limited resources that lack reliable access to the internet and computers, this shift has resulted in growing equity gaps. Likewise, transitioning to emergency remote teaching has revealed a lack of digital competency and readiness amongst teachers. English as a Foreign Language in a New-Found Post-Pandemic World presents an overview of various tools, designs, and strategies utilized to provide digital teaching and assessment of the English language, shares research on using digital technologies for supporting English language learning, and identifies promising areas and directions for future innovations, applications, and research in digital English language learning and teaching. Covering critical topics such as digital teacher education, language learning environments, and online instructional tools, this reference work is crucial for administrators, policymakers, teacher educators, special educators, educational technologists, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.
This book provides an overview of recent trends and developments in the field of English language education. It showcases research endeavors from a heterogenous group of scholars from different parts of the world and brings together perspectives from both experienced and emerging scholars. This book provides a platform for established as well as emerging practitioners and scholars in the field of English Language Teaching to share their research. It synthesizes local expertise and culture with innovative ideas from other contexts and brings theory and practice together in one volume.
This book showcases how teacher educators from diverse backgrounds, contexts, and realities approach English language teacher education with a critical stance. Organized into nine parts that explore different facets of English Language Teaching, each section opens with theoretical considerations chapters and features 24 practical application chapters. Written by renowned scholars including Graham Hall, Lili Cavalheiro, and Mario López Gopar, among others, the theoretical considerations chapters offer concise insights into current issues and controversies in the field, point out opportunities for criticality, and discuss implications for teacher education. Written by critically-oriented teacher educators/researchers from various parts of the world including Brazil, Germany, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and the USA, among others, the practical application chapters exhibit various ways to incorporate critical approaches in reshaping current teacher education practices (ranging from critical and queer pedagogy to translanguaging to multilingualism) along with a critical reflection of the potentials and the challenges involved in their application.
Perspectives on Language Assessment Literacy describes how the elements of language assessment literacy can help teachers gather information about when and how to assess learners, and about using the appropriate assessment tools to interpret results in a fair way. It provides highlights from past and current research, descriptions of assessment processes that enhance LAL, case studies from classrooms, and suggestions for professional dialogue and collaboration. This book will help to foster continuous learning, empower learners and teachers and make them more confident in their assessment tasks, and reassure decision makers that what is going on in assessment meets international benchmarks and standards. It addresses issues like concepts and challenges of assessment, the impacts of reflective feedback on assessment, the ontogenetic nature of assessment literacy, the reliability of classroom-based assessment, and interfaces between teaching and assessment. It fills this gap in the literature by addressing the current status and future challenges of language assessment literacy. This book will be of great interest for academics, researchers, and post-graduate students in the fields of language assessment literacy and English language teaching.