Purpose: Standardized norm-referenced tests are an important aspect of language assessment for school-age children. This study explored the language test selection practices of school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working with elementary school children suspected of having developmental language disorder. Specifically, we investigated…

In parallel with an increased focus on border security in immigration and citizenship policy in the UK (the so-called 'hostile environment' policy), Government-approved English language tests for visa and immigration purposes were officially labelled 'Secure English Language Tests' (SELTs) in 2010. The proximity of security concerns in language…

One of the many education reforms in Thailand is a policy aimed at improving English language proficiency among university students. One direction in this policy requires that each university administer a standardized English language test to their students before they graduate, and that the students' scores should be aligned to the Common…

We illustrate the value of the Bilingual Aphasia Test in the diagnostic assessment of a trilingual speaker post-stroke living in England for whom English was a non-native language. The Comprehensive Aphasia Test is routinely used to assess patients in English, but only in combination with the Bilingual Aphasia Test is it possible and practical to…

Twenty-one language tests that included norms for children ages 4 and 5 were reviewed for information on 10 psychometric criteria. Administration of the 4 tests meeting the most criteria to 20 preschool children with specific language impairments and 20 controls found that only 1 (the Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test) provided…

The study investigated the extent to which information obtained from the WISC overlaps with information obtained from the ITPA. A canonical correlation analysis revealed that only 24 percent of the WISC subtest variance is redundant, given the ITPA; while 22 percent of the ITPA subtest variance is redundant, given the WISC. (Author/DB)

This paper reviews basic social validity assessment techniques, discusses the constructs underlying direct magnitude estimation (DME), illustrates the use of DME for performing social validity evaluations of spontaneous language samples (with 3 brain-injured children, ages 10-15, and 3 controls), and discusses the relationship between subjective…

This study is based on three sources: (1) an experimental try-out of four oral proficiency testing methods (oral interview, role play, reporting test, and group discussion); (2) an evaluation of the testing methods by a panel of experts; and (3) an analysis of the same testing methods by policy makers. The findings are reported in terms of the…

A study supplementing earlier research by Lalande and Schweckendiek investigated comparisons and correlations obtained from testing a group of 17 university students of German using both the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and the most recent revision of the examination for the…

Describes efforts to design a method of assessing community college students' entry-level writing skills, which compared the predictive validity of three methods of evaluating writing skills: writing samples, objective tests, and self-assessments. Results of these scores were correlated with students' success in writing courses. (CAM)

Summarizes some of the findings of recent study of tests designed to determine the English language proficiency of nonnative speakers. (CFM)

This paper presents empirical data concerning the use of a cloze test as a measure of second language proficiency. Grade four students in their fifth year of a French immersion program were tested using both English and French cloze tests. Correlations between the cloze test and other language achievement measures were calculated for both…

The Language Assessment Battery was administered to third to fifth grade limited English speaking students in New York City. Special techniques addressed two common problems in testing these populations: (1) language tests suitable for limited English speakers change their psychometric characteristics over time as the students' language ability…

Every test intended for use in federally-funded research on children or youth during fiscal year 1975 was placed on a list. The list enentually comprised the titles of 1,570 instruments. The question pursued was whether there would be any realtionship between an instrument's quality and the frequenc with which it was used. For measures of quality…