Modern teaching practices emphasize learner autonomy and learner-centered approaches to language learning. Such teaching methods require corresponding assessment approaches. Self-assessment is viewed as an assessment mode which matches modern learner-centered teaching methodologies. However, the validity and reliability of self-assessments are not…

Formative assessment has been often encouraged recently as a pivot component in the methodology of evaluation but the student's views of how this affects the improvement of language learning in some countries are disregarded in a way. Therefore, the following study investigates the experiences of students (pre-service teachers) in formative…

Local item dependence (LID) refers to the situation where responses to items in a test or questionnaire are influenced by responses to other items in the test. This could be due to shared prompts, item content similarity, and deficiencies in item construction. LID due to a shared prompt is highly probable in cloze tests where items are nested…

Determining students' language proficiency is essential for successful instruction and learning objectives in many educational settings. To this end, one of the most efficient assessment tools for measuring language proficiency is the C-test. Thus, the primary aim of this research is to assess the performance of university students through the…

Reading aloud is recommended as a simple technique to measure speaking ability (Hughes & Hughes, 2020; Madsen, 1983). Reading aloud is currently used in the Pearson Test of English and a couple of other international English as a second language proficiency tests. Due to the simplicity of the technique, it can be used in conjunction with other…

Construct-irrelevant variance is considered as a major threat to validity which indicates the existence of additional unrelated variables that distort the meaning of test scores and cause the test to be biased. Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis is an important technique in examining the validity and fairness of educational tests.…

The current paper intends to exploit the Many Facet Rasch Model to investigate and compare the impact of situations (items) and raters on test takers' performance on the Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT) and Discourse Self-Assessment Tests (DSAT). In this study, the participants were 110 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students at…

Assessment of learners affects all processes of their learning. Generally, without assessment, it is very difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process. Understanding their weak points and difficulties in their writing would help teachers and administrators focus more on these areas. Therefore, this content analysis…

A critical component of cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs) is a Q-matrix that stipulates associations between items of a test and their required attributes. The present study aims to develop and empirically validate a Q-matrix for the listening comprehension section of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). To this end, a…

The Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE-A), a widely used high-stakes language proficiency test for university admissions and migration purposes, underwent a notable change from a three-hour to a two-hour version in November 2021. The implementation of the new version has prompted inquiries into the washback effects on various stakeholders.…

Although researchers have used practical procedures for developing professional teacher education, such as reflective practice and action research, the role of learning-oriented assessment (LOA) in building an active learner-centered pre-service teacher education has received scarce scholarly attention. Hence, the purpose of this study is to…

The statement stated in a multiple-choice question can be developed regarding two types of sentences: Interruptive (periodic) and cumulative (or loose). This study deals with different kinds of stems in designing multiple-choice (MC) items. To fill the existing gap in the literature, two groups of teacher students passing general English courses…

A paradigm shift in education has led to implementing learner-centered pedagogy (LCP) which considers learners as the central element of the learning process, and it is progressively being encouraged in higher education. Examining the implementation of learner-centered pedagogy in English language teaching (ELT) context is important. While this…

Cloze tests are gap-filling tests designed to measure overall language ability and reading comprehension in a second language. Due to their ease of construction and scoring, cloze tests are widely used in the context of second and foreign language testing. Previous research over the past decades has shown the reliability and validity of cloze…

The objective of this study was to validate a bilingual Spanish-English version of the Vocabulary Size Test (VST) considering its potential use as a discriminator between learners in terms of language competence. This version was designed based on the two forms available on one of the creators' websites as well as considering practices recommended…