This large-scale study used a survey to collect data on K-12 world language program leadership and instructional practices in Massachusetts public schools, investigating associations between the presence of a program leader or primary evaluator who is a world language specialist and instructional practices, curriculum, and assessment. The study…

Assessing writing is a demanding task. If a lecturer of writing is not prepared with a reliable scoring rubric, the students' real performance might not be known. One of the well-known English as a second language (ESL) writing rubric is the Jacobs ESL Composition Profile which was developed by Jacobs, Zingraf, Wormuth, Hartfiel, & Hughey in…

Assessing language skills in an integrative form has drawn the attention of assessment experts in recent years. While some research data exists on integrative listening/reading-to-write assessment, there is comparatively little research literature on listening-to-speak integrated assessment. Also, little attention has been devoted to the role of…

Two factors were investigated that are thought to contribute to consistency in rater scoring judgments: rater training and experience in scoring. Also considered were the relative effects of scoring rubrics and exemplars on rater performance. Experienced teachers of English (N = 20) scored recorded responses from the TOEFL iBT speaking test prior…

This study explores which features of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) pronunciation most impact raters' evaluations. Native Spanish speakers (NSSs) from regions with different pronunciation norms were polled: 147 evaluators from northern Mexico and 99 evaluators from central Argentina. These evaluations were contrasted with ratings from…

Speaking performance tests typically employ raters to produce scores; accordingly, variability in raters' scoring decisions has important consequences for test reliability and validity. One such source of variability is the rater's level of expertise in scoring. Therefore, it is important to understand how raters' performance is influenced by…

Salient in an EFL teaching context is students' dissatisfaction with their final scores especially in oral courses. This study tried to bridge the gap between students' and teachers' rating system through alternatives to existing measurement methods. Task-based language assessment has stimulated language teachers to question the way through which…