Second language (L2) utterance fluency is crucial for speaking proficiency assessment. The measurement of L2 utterance fluency relies heavily on silent pause identification. However, empirical studies establishing specific silent pause thresholds for L2 monologic speaking are scarce, and even fewer exist for L2 dialogic speaking. This study thus…

In order to address the needs of the continually growing number of Chinese language learners, the present study developed and presented initial validation of a 100-item Chinese vocabulary proficiency test (CVPT) for learners of Chinese as a second/foreign language (CS/FL) using Item Response Theory among 170 CS/FL learners from Indonesia and 354…

English-medium universities often accept scores from various English language proficiency (ELP) tests as evidence of ELP from non-English background students. This practice raises the question of how these tests compare in terms of their ability to predict academic achievement. This longitudinal study addresses this question by examining the…

Applicants must often demonstrate adequate English proficiency when applying to postsecondary institutions by taking an English language proficiency test, such as the TOEFL iBT, IELTS Academic, or Duolingo English Test (DET). Concordance tables aim to provide equivalent scores across multiple assessments, helping admissions officers to make fair…

Many candidates undertaking high-stakes English language proficiency tests for academic enrolment do not achieve the results they need for reasons including linguistic unreadiness, test unpreparedness, illness, an unfavourable configuration of tasks, or administrative and marking errors. Owing to the importance of meeting goals or out of a belief…

The extrapolation of test scores to a target domain - that is, association between test performances and relevant real-world outcomes - is critical to valid score interpretation and use. This study examined the relationship between Duolingo English Test (DET) speaking scores and university stakeholders' evaluation of DET speaking performances. A…

This study aimed to propose a new method for scoring C-Tests as measures of general language proficiency. In this approach, the unit of analysis is sentences rather than gaps or passages. That is, the gaps correctly reformulated in each sentence were aggregated as sentence score, and then each sentence was entered into the analysis as a polytomous…

Placement tests are used to support a particular need in a local context--to determine the best starting place for a student entering a specific programme of language study. This brief report will focus on the development of an innovative placement test with self-directed elements for our local needs at a university in Canada for students studying…

This article provides a single, common-case study of a test retrofit project at one Colombian university. It reports on how the test retrofit project was carried out and describes the different areas of language assessment literacy the project afforded local teacher stakeholders. This project was successful in that it modified the test constructs…

The current study examined the extent to which first language (L1) utterance fluency measures can predict second language (L2) fluency and how L2 proficiency moderates the relationship between L1 and L2 fluency. A total of 104 Japanese-speaking learners of English completed different argumentative speech tasks in their L1 and L2. Their speaking…

With the present study I investigated the sources of score variance and dependability in a local oral English proficiency test for potential international teaching assistants (ITAs) across four first language (L1) groups, and suggested alternative test designs. Using generalizability theory, I examined the relative importance of L1s (i.e., Indian,…

For institutions where English is the primary language of instruction, English assessments for admissions such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and International English Language Testing System (IELTS) give admissions decision-makers a sense of a student's skills in academic English. Despite this explicit purpose, these exams…

The overarching aim of the study is to explore the extent to which test takers' performances on monologic speaking tasks provide information about their interactional competence. This is an important concern from a test use perspective, as stakeholders tend to consider test scores as providing comprehensive information about all aspects of L2…

In this study, we present the development of individualized feedback for a large-scale listening assessment by combining standard setting and cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) approaches. We used the performance data from 3,358 students' item-level responses to a field test of a national EFL test primarily intended for tertiary-level EFL…

The rating of proficiency tests that use the Inter-agency Roundtable (ILR) and American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) guidelines claims that each major level is based on hierarchal linguistic functions that require mastery of multidimensional traits in such a way that each level subsumes the levels beneath it. These…