Plurilingual competence or repertoire of languages refers to all individuals being potentially plurilingual. As plurilingual competence and language repertoires are individual, assessment modes targeted to the individual and localized to the context should be encouraged. This study explored and depicted the plurilingual profile of Italian Studies…

This study outlines how handwritten reflection cards lead to the retention of the Japanese kana alphabets. Handwriting is said to help improve retention of the Japanese alphabets. Currently, in-person classes provide most of the materials and assignments via the university's Learning Management System (LMS), and students have the choice to…

Research on Portuguese language exams in the language assessment field remains scarce. To bridge this gap, this study examined washback from the large-scale, high-stakes Portuguese proficiency tests created by the Center of Evaluation of Portuguese as a Foreign Language ("Centro de Avaliação de Português Língua Estrangeira," or CAPLE as…

Vocabulary research provides valuable information on the construct of word knowledge (WK), and suggests ways to develop language learners' lexicon, arguably, the backbone of communication. The present study explores EFL students' vocabulary learning behavior; more specifically, the aspects of WK components they intentionally focus on when learning…

Verbal interaction has been the subject of a growing interest among language professionals in Europe since the CEFR was published in 2001; in linguistics, verbal interaction has long been studied. In the Bakhtinian approach, it is even considered "the fundamental reality of language". All types of interaction share the fact that they are…

This contribution reports on the developing and piloting of a computer-based version of the test of English as a foreign language produced by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), where it is currently used for the admission of international students and the subsequent evaluation of their language progress. Among other benefits,…

The current study aimed to examine the contribution of general and specialist vocabulary knowledge to undergraduate students' academic achievement in university courses which are delivered in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in non-English speaking countries. To this end, the scores of 106 Arab undergraduates on a general vocabulary test…

Integrated assessment evaluates language proficiency through tasks that require the test-taker to produce a written or spoken output based on listening or reading comprehension (reading or listening-into-writing or speaking). Since integrated assessment aims at reflecting the communicative and cognitive requirements of academic life and other…

The present investigation explores Cognitive Test Anxiety (CTA) in a high-stake oral examination, taking into consideration how face-to-face and computer-based examination formats affect test-takers' anxiety and consequently language performance. Two speaking tests -- face-to-face and computer-based -- were developed for a Spanish university's…

The use of video games in the foreign language classroom is becoming an emerging tendency. This paper aims at analysing how the serious video game "ImmerseMe" influences the learning of Spanish as a foreign language within a group of 22 Chinese students. This research was conducted through an experiment that included testing…

This report outlines how individuals at the University of Leicester's English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) re-evaluated their role as Gatekeepers to the University by implementing new measures to facilitate the admission of a group for whom the gates would typically be shut: refugees and asylum seekers (RASs). It describes how, incrementally and…

Since 2012 an interdisciplinary and culturally heterogeneous team composed of more than 30 people has been engaged in the complex process of conceiving, designing and validating an online placement test with formative orientation called SELF (Système d'Evaluation en Langues à visée Formative), developed and already deployed in six different…

The growing number of internationally mobile students who present Italian L2 language certificates on entry has led the University of Padua Language Centre (CLA) to reflect on whether it should maintain an online placement testing as a means of placing students in the relevant classes (Fratter, Ivana & Altinier. Micol 2015. Gli apprendenti di…

The Association of Language Centres in Higher Education in Spain (ACLES) and the Association of Academic Foreign Language Centres in Poland (SERMO) established the mutual recognition of their English language competence certificates (CertAcles and ACERT examinations) in 2017, on the basis of previously performed analyses of routine pre-exam and…

The processes to assess students' learning acquired in various non-formal and informal learning environments have become increasingly common in Finnish university language centres in recent years. This paper describes new developments at the University of Eastern Finland to assess students' non-formal and informal learning of English for Academic…