Language assessment literacy has been discussed by language assessment specialists since Davies' seminal 2008 article. Much of this discussion has focused on experts' opinions of what teachers know, do not know, and should know about assessment. This paper reports on a project which aimed to put teachers at the centre of the debate by exploring…

The expansion of English teaching in state education systems places increasing demands on English language teachers and how they are trained. A major thrust of these efforts has focused on improving teachers' English language proficiency. This expectation is manifested in policy and pedagogical directives that teachers "teach English in…

In the past few decades, approaches to language assessment and perspectives on learning have changed. This article highlights those developments with the greatest significance for teachers and classroom-based language assessment, including the emergence of new perspectives on the nature of language ability and learning, use of an expanded array of…

This article looks at issues surrounding learner self-assessment and studies into teacher beliefs. It then goes on to present the findings of a study designed to explore teacher attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour with regard to learner self-assessment during the implementation of a revision of assessment procedures for teens aged 14-16 years.…

This article provides some context for the unquestionable influence of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR) on language learning, teaching, and assessment ten years after its publication. If a survey about the most relevant and controversial document in the field in the twenty-first…

L1-L2 translation of separate sentences is one kind of task format used by mainstream EFL teachers to assess their learners' grammatical accuracy. Aimed at improving teacher-written translation items, this study analyses linguistic features potentially causing such decontextualized cues (and their target responses) to sound odd or untypical of…

This study utilizes a pre-test/post-test assessment to investigate the instructional efficacy of a genre-based approach to teaching summary writing. Forty-one EFL university students in Taiwan were asked before and after the instruction to summarize a simplified version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in a maximum of 500 words. All the students'…

Describes the Speaking Test, which forms part of the revised First Certificate of English (FCE) examination of the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. Discusses key revisions, including use of paired-testing format, and notes the role of the oral examiners. Considers why the new design provides improvements in the assessment of…

Responds to a previous article that discussed paired testing of oral languages and focused on the role of the examiners, suggesting that the paper was not necessarily correct in saying that the problems associated with paired testing are outweighed by its positive advantages. This paper argues that paired testing has many potential problems that…