The Assessment of Language Competence (ALC) certificates is an annual, international testing program developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research to test the listening and reading comprehension skills of lower to middle year levels of secondary school. The tests are developed for three levels in French, German, Italian and…

Despite the importance of having a reliable and valid measure of Second Language (L2) proficiency, L2 researchers of less commonly taught languages rarely have such a tool. Existing proficiency measures (e.g., DLPT, OPI) are often costly, labor-intensive, time-consuming, or unavailable to the public. With the intent to provide a practical and…

Alderson (2005) suggests that diagnostic tests should identify strengths and weaknesses in learners' use of language and focus on specific elements rather than global abilities. However, rating scales used in performance assessment have been repeatedly criticized for being imprecise and therefore often resulting in holistic marking by raters…

This article reports on a large-scale study that aims to validate the theory of strategic competence proposed by Bachman and Palmer (1996) through the use of structural equation modeling (SEM). The present study examines the relationship of test-takers' long-term strategic knowledge (i.e., trait strategies) and actual strategy use (i.e., state…