Rater subjectivity has long been an intriguing topic. The use of discussion as a resolution method is a practical way to reduce this subjectivity. However, the efficacy of discussion depends on whether different raters get equally engaged in it or one rater tends to dominate others. This study investigated whether and how rater dominance occurs in…

The elicited imitation task (EIT), in which language learners listen to a series of spoken sentences and repeat each one verbatim, is a commonly used measure of language proficiency in second language acquisition research. The "TOEFL® Essentials"™ test includes an EIT as a holistic measure of speaking proficiency, referred to as the…

In this research report, we describe the design and empirical findings for a large-scale study of essay writing ability with approximately 2,500 high school students in Germany and Switzerland on the basis of 2 tasks with 2 associated prompts, each from a standardized writing assessment whose scoring involved both human and automated components.…

Threats to construct validity should be reduced to a minimum. If true, sources of bias, namely raters, items, tests as well as gender, age, race, language background, culture, and socio-economic status need to be spotted and removed. This study investigates raters' experience, language background, and the choice of essay prompt as potential…

Despite calls for engaging assessments targeting young language learners (YLLs) between 8 and 13 years old, what makes assessment tasks engaging and how such task characteristics affect measurement quality have not been well studied empirically. Furthermore, there has been a dearth of validity research about technology-enhanced speaking tests for…

The study considers the assessment of L2 English learners by trained raters in paired and group oral assessments in comparison to an individual, monologue assessment, to determine 1) the degree to which raters assign pairs/groups shared (the same) scores and the degree to which raters give individual members of pairs/groups higher or lower as…

The emergence of computer technology in English language teaching has paved the way for teachers' application of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (mall) and its advantages in teaching. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the face to face instruction with Telegram mobile instruction. Based on a toefl test, 60 English foreign language…

This study attempted to unveil the effect of metadiscourse instruction on the improvement of the speaking ability of Iranian EFL learners. After the administration of a language proficiency test, 34 homogeneous participants were assigned into the experimental and control groups. Then, the two groups were compared on their speaking ability. After…

This study investigated the scoring of the Test of English as a Foreign Language[TM] Internet-based Test (TOEFL iBT[TM]) Speaking section by bilingual or multilingual speakers of English and 1 or more Indian languages. We explored the extent to which raters from India, after being trained and certified, were able to score the Speaking section for…

A discussion of the differences between the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), an American test battery, and the Cambridge English Examinations (Cambridge), a British battery, focuses on the different approaches to language test development embodied in the tests as the source of difficulty in translating between them for individual…

This paper traces developments in educational psychology and measurement that led to the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) and the application of educational measurement terms such as validity and reliability to testing. Use of a table of specifications for planning…