The following interview was conducted with Catherine Elder in spring of 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. Cathie has had a varied career in language testing, including work at universities in Australia and New Zealand and at the Language Testing Resource Center in Melbourne. In this interview, Cathie shares some highlights of her somewhat…

Courtroom interpreting requires a high level of accuracy due to the strategic use of language in such an institutional setting. It is generally agreed among interpreting scholars that quality interpreting in court should accurately relay both propositional content and illocutionary force of the original utterances. This high standard of accuracy…

Objects that sit between intersecting social worlds, such as Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) tests, are "boundary objects"--dynamic, historically derived mechanisms which maintain coherence between worlds (Star & Griesemer, 1989). They emerge initially from sociopolitical mandates, such as the need to ensure a safe and efficient…

Criticism of specific-purpose language (LSP) tests is often directed at their limited ability to represent fully the demands of the target language use situation. Such criticisms extend to the criteria used to assess test performance, which may fail to capture what matters to participants in the domain of interest. This paper reports on the…

This article examines Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) in New Zealand and Australia (Australasia) and Europe in recent years, focusing on the creation and implementation of curricula in these contexts. The examination draws on themes distinguished by Grosse and Voght (1991) in their discussion of the emergence of LSP foreign language programs…

Offers insight as to why children switch back to their mother tongue in mathematics classes. Discusses implications for teachers of mathematics in such settings. (Author/CCM)

Discusses a study that examined the vocational role of second-language learning, specifically with reference to access to foreign-language specialist literature for higher degree research purposes. (11 references) (GLR)

Describes an English for Special Purposes program for foreign students at the Goulburn Street Centre in Sydney, Australia. (CFM)

Discusses a new joint degree program involving the study of a language and its culture launched at an Australian university by the engineering faculty. Students who complete the program will be awarded both a Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Arts degree. The arts degree course is in the field of international studies and includes subjects…

Discusses how research on conventional discourse patterns in professional settings provides useful insights into the design of language for specific purposes/English for specific purposes courses (LSP/ESP). Suggests an LSP course should aim at developing students' genre awareness. The question of whether genre conventions should be explicitly…

Examines in broad terms the Science with Japanese Program at Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, and evaluates the success of this program in terms of academic achievement and relevance to future employment. (12 references) (GLR)

Presents some policy issues regarding Chinese language courses for students whose mother tongue is Chinese or a dialect of Chinese. (five references) (Author/CK)

Issues in testing proficiency in languages for special purposes (LSP) are examined in the context of the development of an advanced oral test in Japanese for tour guides. The test, designed at an Australian university for use in the Australian tourism industry, was to be designed to evaluate both language proficiency and skills in appropriate…

A selection of essays on language testing includes: "Perspectives on the Testing Cycle: Setting the Scene" (Catherine Elder, Gillian Wigglesworth); "The Politicisation of English: The Case of the STEP Test and the Chinese Students" (Lesleyanne Hawthorne); "Developing Language Tests for Specific Populations" (Rosemary…

The Australian Second Language Proficiency Ratings (ASLPR) is a scale that describes how second language proficiency develops on a scale from zero to native-like proficiency, providing performance descriptions in terms of practical tasks. Initially developed for English second language teaching, it has been adapted for English dialects in…