Second language (L2) learners can assess their oral skills with some accuracy. A question is whether learners can reliably use self-assessment to track their language gains over time. During the spring of two subsequent years, 80 university L2 Chinese learners completed an oral skills self-assessment based on the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements…

Against the background of concerns for how paper-and-pencil testing fits into contemporary language teaching, this brief research report presents the findings of a first study on the difference in scores between in-class testing and online testing in a communicative and proficiency-oriented program. A total of 244 students of third-semester…

This study represents program-level action research. A U.S. university Spanish language program had a goal for students to reach the ACTFL (2012) Intermediate Mid level after 2 years. An empirical question that resulted after regular end-of-year testing was whether the students were doing their best on assessments. To investigate this, 253…

Articulation is one of the principal challenges of all foreign language programs. A key component of the articulation process is an assessment of student language abilities. On college and university campuses this process is usually conducted via a placement test. As developments in proficiency research have progressed, it is clear that programs…