Individuals' use of language in contexts emerges from second-to-second processes of activating and integrating traces of past experiences--an interactionist view compatible with the study of language as a complex adaptive system but quite different from the trait-based framework through which measurement specialists investigate validity, establish…

Cites evidence showing that the "natural order" found using the Bilingual Syntax Measure to measure morpheme order is not an artifact of the test. (Author/AM)

Reports on study in which students of Hebrew as a second language took four versions of oral proficiency test. Results indicate that different speech styles and topics significantly affected students' scores, and correlational analyses between pairs pointed to low reliability and lack of stability of the test. Urges caution in making decisions…

Addresses the issues of whether test scores are affected by the prior availability of the items on a test. Concludes that, while disclosing items significantly affects test scores, the magnitude of the disclosure effect drecreases with an increase in the size of the disclosed pool. (EKN)

Reports on an experiment designed to test the reliability of the cloze procedure in second language testing, specifically as a measure of overall language proficiency, and as a measure whose results are independent of style. (AM)

Reports on an experiment that measured passage-dependency in an ESL test. Results suggest that passage-dependency is one measure that can be used to select good reading comprehension tests. (Author/AM)

Discusses a study of the reliability of a categorical instrument for evaluating compositions written by upper intermediate university English as a second language students. The instrument tests organization, logical development of ideas, grammar, mechanics, and style. Results indicate that the scoring instrument is moderately reliable. (SED)

A study to evaluate seven commonly employed reading comprehension testing techniques in terms of predictive validity, difficulty and discriminability is described. (Author/RM)

Describes a study which examined the reliability, validity, and scalability of a new technique for constructing, administering, and scoring dictation tests to measure second language proficiency. Findings indicate that such tests can be constructed easily by dividing a coherent text into segments of increasing length. (SED)

Reports the results of a study which sought to investigate the validity of the oral interview in testing language proficiency, in particular that of adult students of English as a Second Language. (Author/AM)

Three oral testing methods (imitation, completion, and interview) were compared for reliability and validity with 143 adult Egyptian learners of English. Five components (raw score, fluency, pronunciation, grammar, and combined fluency-pronunciation-grammar) were analyzed for each method. Imitation showed the highest validity, with interview and…

Assesses the validity of Language Assessment Scales (LAS) and a cloze test in measuring language proficiency. The LAS and two written cloze passages were administered to 28 Mexican-American third graders enrolled in bilingual classes. The cloze test correlated significantly only with the California Test of Basic Skills. (Author/LMO)