The University English Centres of Australia (UECA) 'Assessment Symposium: Assessment Practice in a Changing World' at Southern Cross University in October 2022 highlighted the growing interest in integrated assessment in Australian university direct entry programs (DEPs) for English as Additional Language (EAL) students. In keynote presentations,…

In Thailand, a series of policies have been implemented at all levels of Thai education. It is hoped that English language ability among Thai citizens will be improved. In primary education, following the English language education policy for primary school students introduced by the Office of Basic Education Commission (2016), English has been…

The test view is on the Duolingo English Test (DET), an alternative online English proficiency test with a machine-driven characteristic. The review covers essential information of the DET such as test purpose, usage, score-mapping with CEFR scale, price, and publisher. Meanwhile, the test usefulness is discussed with focuses on reliability,…

Responding to the challenge of delivering valid assessments during the unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic was certainly not easy. However, the efforts will undoubtedly lead to developments in the field of language assessment. This special issue closes with a brief summary of the commentaries it contains and raises some unanswered…

The online placement test for the Community English Language Program (CLP) at Teachers College, Columbia University has been administered in a computer lab since 2015. While most of the components of this placement exam system are online, including registration, exam delivery, scoring, and score reporting, the COVID-19 pandemic elevated the need…

We present a tool for the creation and curation of C-tests. C-tests are an established tool in language proficiency testing and language learning. They require examinees to complete a text in which the second half of every second word is replaced by a gap. We support teachers and test designers in creating such tests through a web-based system…

This article provides an overview and evaluation of the uses--actual and potential--of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and spoken dialogue systems (SDS), related technologies that can be applied to second language speaking assessment, given particular definitions of the construct. Both technologies have only gradually moved in the direction of…

This article brings to the fore trends in second language (L2) pronunciation research, teaching, and assessment by highlighting the ways in which pronunciation instructional priorities and assessment targets have shifted over time, social dimensions that, although presented in a different guise, appear to have remained static, and principles in…

Normalization of design rules and guidelines in English language tests to help future instructors and assessment developers in the field of examination of English as a foreign language have not been defined sufficiently until present days. In fact, there are several experiences and investigations related to the user's experiences in the handling…

Since 2012 an interdisciplinary and culturally heterogeneous team composed of more than 30 people has been engaged in the complex process of conceiving, designing and validating an online placement test with formative orientation called SELF (Système d'Evaluation en Langues à visée Formative), developed and already deployed in six different…

The processes to assess students' learning acquired in various non-formal and informal learning environments have become increasingly common in Finnish university language centres in recent years. This paper describes new developments at the University of Eastern Finland to assess students' non-formal and informal learning of English for Academic…

The paper describes initial efforts on creating a system for the automatic assessment of Swedish second language (L2) learner essays from two points of view: holistic evaluation of the reached level according to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), and the lexical analysis of texts for receptive and productive vocabulary per CEFR…

The growing number of students from increasingly diverse backgrounds--both English speaking and non-English speaking--entering English-medium institutions of higher education has put unprecedented pressure on universities to think creatively about efficient and cost-effective ways of identifying students at risk linguistically. Having done so,…

Advances in technology are enabling dramatic changes in education content, delivery, and accessibility. Throughout history, new technologies have facilitated the exponential growth of human knowledge. In the early twentieth century, the focus was on the use of radios in education. But since then, innovators have seen technology as a way to improve…

This report offers online course designers, particularly those keen on using Moodle CMSs, a means of diversifying accessibility to their educational materials via multiple modes of delivery that do not require the creation of numerous files and formats for just one activity. The author has made contributions to the development of an open source…