Amid profound changes to student placement systems at universities and colleges, the placement of English language learners has remained largely the same. Generally speaking, international students, and in some places other English language learners, face single measure testing and required remediation. Single measure high stakes testing goes…

The Common Educational Proficiency Assessment (CEPA) is a large-scale, high-stakes, English language proficiency/placement test administered in the United Arab Emirates to Emirati nationals in their final year of secondary education or Grade 12. The purpose of the CEPA is to place students into English classes at the appropriate government…

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) brings tremendous influence to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners worldwide. TOEFL 2000 project claims that TOEFL, as a more reflective of communicative model, could provide more information about international students' language ability that it is supposed to measure. However, after…

In this article, the author reviews the TOEFL iBT which is the latest version of the TOEFL, whose history stretches back to 1961. The TOEFL iBT was introduced in the USA, Canada, France, Germany and Italy in late 2005. Currently the TOEFL test is offered in two testing formats: (1) Internet-based testing (iBT); and (2) paper-based testing (PBT).…

A multitask speaking measure consisting of both integrated and independent tasks is expected to be an important component of a new version of the TOEFL test. This study considered two critical issues concerning score dependability of the new speaking measure: How much would the score dependability be impacted by (1) combining scores on different…

The reliability of scores from four forms of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was estimated using a hybrid item response theory model. It was found that there was very little difference between overall reliability when the testlet items were assumed to be independent and when their dependence was modeled. (Author/SLD)

Previous research on differences in the reliability, validity, and difficulty of essay tests given under different timing conditions has indicated that giving examinees more time to complete an essay may raise their scores to a certain extent, but does not change the meaning of those scores, or the rank ordering of students. There is no evidence…