This article provides an overview on language test validation theories, especially the Messickian view on construct validity and the way it's been translated into practice. First, a brief historical synopsis will be set forth, followed by recent views on test validity as advanced by Messick and Kane. The review goes on to lay out the similarities…

Any attempt to define English language proficiency can never be divorced from the theories that describe the nature of language, language acquisition and human cognition. By virtue of such theories being socially constructed, the descriptions are necessarily value-laden. Thus, a definition of language proficiency can only, at best, be described as…