Caroline Clapham

Developing and exploring the behaviour of two new versions of the Vocabulary Levels Test

The Vocabulary Levels Test has been widely used in language assessment and vocabulary research despite never having been properly validated. This article reports on a study which uses a range of analysis techniques to present validity evidence, and to explore the equivalence of two revised and expanded versions of the Vocabulary Levels Test.

ASSESSMENT AND TESTING

In this brief article, I discuss the relationship between language testing and the other sub-disciplines of applied linguistics and also the relationship, as I see it, between testing and assessment. The article starts with a brief exploration of the term ‘applied linguistics’ and then goes on to discuss the role of language testing within this discipline, the relationship between testing and teaching, and the relationship between testing and assessment. The second part of the article mentions some areas of current concern to testers and discusses in more detail recent advances in the areas of performance testing, alternative assessment, and computer assessment. One of my aims in this article is to argue that the skills involved in language testing are necessary not only for those constructing all kinds of language proficiency assessments, but also for those other applied linguists who use tests or other elicitation techniques to help them gather language data for research.

Evaluating a placement test

The nature and validation of placement tests is rarely discussed in the language testing literature, yet placement tests are probably one of the commonest forms of tests used within institutions which are not designed by individual teachers and which are used to make decisions across the institution rather than within individual classes. Questions to be asked in the validation and evaluation of any placement test include the following: Does the placement test correctly identify those students who most need English and study skills classes? Do the students who take the test feel that their language has been accurately measured? Is the content of the test appro priate to the uses made of the tests? Is the test reliable? This paper reports on an attempt to validate an institutional placement test at Lancaster University. After presenting the results of the study, the paper comments both on the validity and reliability of the test, and on the wider issues that influence how validation studies of placement tests can be carried out.

Assessment for academic purposes: where next?

This paper starts by discussing research into the effect of background knowledge on English for Academic Purposes (EAP) tests and discusses EAP tests in which the content of at least some of the test components is related to students’ fields of academic study. This section shows how research has demonstrated that students do not necessarily do better if they are given tests in their own academic subject areas and how, because of the difficulties inherent in test-equating, such tests may not be testing the students fairly. The paper suggests, therefore, that for international EAP tests, English for Specific Academic Purposes testing be abandoned. In its second part, the paper discusses what EAP tests might consist of in the future. Instead of EAP proficiency tests, the paper suggests that there should be aptitude tests to find out whether L1 and L2 students would be capable of rapidly acquiring the requisite academic discourse practices once they had embarked on their academic courses. Such tests for L2 students should include a test of specific grammatical skills, so that receiving institutions can be sure that students have the requisite linguistic infrastructure needed to carry out academic work in English.