The hot debate of integrating technology into instruction has captured the interest of the world in the context of 21st century education. A considerable amount of effort has been presented in order to incorporate technology into education. In this respect, attitudes have been considered as a good indicator of the tendency to implement technology…

The current situation of international communication in globalization context requires intercultural competence (IC) to achieve successful communication (Crystal, 2003). Concerning this intercultural competence, non-verbal communication (NVC) plays a key role to indicate the success of having intercultural competence. On the other hand, Thai…

This study investigates the impact of raters' language background on their judgements of the speaking performance in the College English Test-Spoken English Test (CET-SET) of China, by comparing the rating patterns of non-native English-speaking (NNES) teacher raters, who are currently employed to assess performance on the CET-SET, with those of…

With the increasing enrollment of international students in North American universities, the need to support the adjustment of international students has also increased. One factor consistently identified as essential to successful student adjustment is having a strong support network, including familial support. Previous research investigating…

Along with a more humanitarian movement in language testing, accountability to contextual variables in the design and development of any assessment enterprise is emphasized. However, when it comes to writing assessment, it is found that multiplicity of rating scales developed to fit diverse contexts is mainly headed by well-known native testing…

With the development of the English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) Teacher Resource, the educational needs and outcomes of refugee and immigrant children have been placed on the national mainstream teaching agenda. This new national resource sits alongside a plethora of other resources, known as scales and standards, which have been…

This mixed-methods study examines the effects of rating scale length and rater experience on listeners' judgments of second-language (L2) speech. Twenty experienced and 20 novice raters, who were randomly assigned to 5-point or 9-point rating scale conditions, judged speech samples of 38 newcomers to Canada on numerical rating scales for…

Research and development of a new type of scoring rubric for the integrated speaking tasks of "TOEFL iBT"® are described. These "analytic rating guides" could be helpful if tasks modeled after those in TOEFL iBT were used for formative assessment, a purpose which is different from TOEFL iBT's primary use for admission…