Foreign language testing is a multi-dimensional phenomenon and obtaining objective and error-free scores on learners' language skills is often problematic. While assessing foreign language performance on high-stakes tests, using different testing approaches including Classical Test Theory (CTT), Generalizability Theory (GT) and/or Item Response…

K-12 English language proficiency tests that assess multiple content domains (e.g., listening, speaking, reading, writing) often have subsections based on these content domains; scores assigned to these subsections are commonly known as subscores. Testing programs face increasing customer demands for the reporting of subscores in addition to the…

This article provides preliminary validity evidence for the shorter Mandarin version of the Vocabulary Size Test (VST) under the content aspect, technical quality, substantive and generalizability aspect of Messick's (1995) construct validity framework. The shorter version with 177 Chinese university students in three proficiency levels indicates…

This study aimed to compare the accuracy of the test scores as results of Test of English Proficiency (TOEP) based on paper and pencil test (PPT) versus computer-based test (CBT). Using the participants' responses to the PPT documented from 2008-2010 and data of CBT TOEP documented in 2013-2014 on the sets of 1A, 2A, and 3A for the Listening and…

The current version of the International Language Testing Association (ILTA) Guidelines for Practice requires language testers to pretest items before including them on an exam, or when pretesting is not possible, to conduct post-hoc item analysis to ensure any malfunctioning items are excluded from scoring. However, the guidelines are devoid of…

A good test is one that has at least three qualities: reliability, or the precision with which a test measures what it is supposed to measure; validity, i.e., if the test really measures what it is supposed to measure, and practicality, or if the test, no matter how sound theoretically, is practicable in reality. These are the sine qua non for any…

A good test is one that has at least three qualities: reliability, or the precision with which a test measures what it is supposed to measure; validity, i.e., if the test really measures what it is supposed to measure; and practicality, or if the test, no matter how sound theoretically, is practicable in reality. These are the sine qua non for…