While language aptitude and motivation are considered to be important contributors to second language (L2) attainment, two major gaps in the past research have been (1) a lack of nonlinear models stemming from a naive and tacit assumption that learning outcomes are linearly related to their predictors, and (2) a lack of unified and integrative…

In recent decades, there has been an attempt to introduce the concept of "assessment for learning" into English language classrooms based on a belief that assessment can be utilized to assist learners in the learning process, not just for teachers to make judgments and decisions. In so doing, the learning-oriented assessment frameworks…

High stakes testing, such as IELTS, is designed to select individuals for decision-making purposes (Fulcher, 2013b). Hence, there is a slow-growing stream of research investigating the subskills of IELTS listening and, in feedback terms, its effects on individuals and educational programs. Here, cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) performs it…

Rating scales for writing assessment are critical in that they determine directly the quality and fairness of such performance tests. However, in many EFL contexts, rating scales are made, to certain extent, based on the intuition of teachers who strongly need a feasible and scientific route to guide their construction of rating scales. This study…

This study investigated the ability of the demographic and the affective variables to predict the adult learners' decision to continue ESOL courser. 278 adult learners, enrolled on ESOL course at FLS institution in Istanbul, Turkey, participated in the study. The result showed that the continued or dropped out groups, demonstrated statistical…

Energy Conservation Theory of Second Language Acquisition (ECT-L2A) (Han, Bao, & Wiita, 2017b), an interdisciplinary theory juxtaposing a physics perspective and an applied linguistics perspective, conceptualizes individuals' ultimate attainment as a function of dynamic transformation of endogenous and exogenous energies throughout the…

The present study assessed intra- and cross-lingual neighborhood effects, using both a generalized lexical decision task and an analysis of a large-scale bilingual eye-tracking corpus (Cop, Dirix, Drieghe, & Duyck, 2016). Using new neighborhood density and frequency measures, the general lexical decision task yielded an inhibitory…

English language proficiency assessments (ELPA) are used in the United States to measure annually the English language progress and proficiency of English-language learners (ELLs), a subgroup of language minority students who receive language acquisition support mandated and largely funded by Title III (NCLB, 2001). ELPA proficient and…

The argument-based approach to validation involves two steps; specification of the proposed interpretations and uses of the test scores as an interpretive argument, and the evaluation of the plausibility of the proposed interpretive argument. More ambitious interpretations and uses tend to involve an extended network of inferences and assumptions…

This study investigates the value of reporting the reading, listening, speaking, and writing section scores for the "TOEFL iBT"® test, focusing on 4 related aspects of the psychometric quality of the TOEFL iBT section scores: reliability of the section scores, dimensionality of the test, presence of distinct score profiles, and the…

Within the last few decades, there have been multidimensional advancements in language assessment. Some of the advancements have been in the direction of developing theoretical models of the construct of language ability, others in the line of measuring that construct, and still some others toward materializing the outcomes of measuring the…

This study examined the stability over 1-year and 2-year periods of the relationship between a cognitive measure and 2 language measures in 125 children (ages 3-7) with developmental delays. Findings indicated substantial changes in the cognitive-language relationship over time, suggesting that the discrepancy model is not appropriate for service…