IELTS is a widely accepted English language proficiency test, required for academic and professional purposes. In this study, we examined the relationship between IELTS and the English proficiency skills of international students. We developed a proximal mediation model based on Bandura's triadic reciprocal determinism theory and tested it using…

Extensive oral tasks or monologues of different types (e.g., presentations, storytelling) are often used as second language acquisition tasks in the fields of language learning and language testing. Pre-task planning time is a common provision to test-takers who may use different strategies to prepare their response. High-stakes tests, such as the…

The study explores the unaddressed washback on the English-speaking test of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE-English Language Paper 4). The HKDSE is a university entrance exam in Hong Kong which includes a group discussion speaking test known as English Language Paper 4. To identify ongoing washback effects,…

Professor Glenn Fulcher's research has influenced language testing and assessment in two ways: in proposing a new understanding of data-driven speaking test design, and in drawing attention to the core identity of language testers. The former has had a powerful impact on practical speaking testing and assessment. The latter has asked a very…

The current study explores the impact of varying multiple-choice question preview and presentation formats in a test of second language listening proficiency targeting different levels of text comprehension. In a between-participant design, participants completed a 30-item test of listening comprehension featuring implicit and explicit information…

TOEFL has been provided as a standardized test to measure the English proficiency of non-native speakers. However, one thing should be considered that TOEFL is still a big challenge for non-native English learners, especially for EFL learners. This is one of the factors, related to how proficient the vocabulary knowledge which students have.…

Although most international students arrive with required language qualifications, many struggle with the linguistic demands of their programmes. This study explored whether the test-preparation industry undermines the qualifications with which students arrive. English proficiency of 153 Chinese student in the UK was tested on the Duolingo English…

This article reports on a study that was carried out to explore the factors that contribute to a negative washback effect on English language teaching (ELT) in secondary schools in Bangladesh. Twelve secondary school teachers were interviewed to understand their perspectives on which factors influenced their pedagogical choices. The interview data…

This study explored the role of vocabulary breadth and depth in second language learners' performance in IELTS academic reading tests in China. Sixty-two Chinese learners of English as a foreign language completed a vocabulary size test, a vocabulary depth test, and an IELTS reading test. Results showed that vocabulary breadth and depth both…

This study qualitatively investigated students from a Mexican university and a U.S. university and how their intercultural competence (IC), the ability to appropriately and effectively communicate with others from countries and cultures other than one's own, was affected by a five-week telecollaborative exchange. To examine the ways in which…

In Mongolia, teachers' attitudes towards large-scale assessments have been a largely uncovered area. Therefore, this paper focuses on examining the general overview of English language teachers' belief about state-level assessments, and their reflection on teaching practices. Participants of this study were 307 teachers of primary and secondary…

The purpose of the present study is to examine whether performance on the "TOEFL iBT"® Reading practice test is affected by 3 different levels of feedback provided to learners upon completion of reading exercises: (a) correctness of learner response (the knowledge of correct results [KCR] feedback), (b) KCR feedback and rationales for…

This book explores the influence of high stakes standardised testing within the context of South Korea. South Korea is regarded as a shining example of success in educational achievement and, as this book reveals, pressurised standardised testing has been a major contributing factor to its success. This unique country provides an excellent setting…

The challenge for many teachers teaching in academic English programs is, on the one hand, to actualize the objectives of their course and on the other hand, prepare their students for the important international tests such as IELTS and TOEFL. The current study seeks to reconcile this challenge by drawing on the relationship between the IELTS…

The study anchors on the Linguistic research tradition of Error Analysis (EA), focused on the grammatical errors, specifically on "verb tenses" manifested in the sentences of Japanese ESL learners. The entire respondent population was drawn from the pool of registered learners in 2017 at the Clark Institute of the Philippines Foundation,…