Despite the numerous endeavours made to develop questionnaires to assess learners' strategic behaviour in general and learning/use strategies across different language areas and skills, one can surprisingly find no inventories to address learners' grammar learning /use strategies. This study aims to validate a measure of additional language…

The distinguishing feature of dynamic assessment (DA) is the dialectical integration of assessment and instruction. However, how to design the targeted instruction or mediation has been relatively underexplored. To address this gap, this study proposes the attribute-based mediation model (AMM), an English-as-a-foreign-language listening mediation…

The C-test is a type of gap-filling test designed to efficiently measure second language proficiency. The typical C-test consists of several short paragraphs with the second half of every second word deleted. The words with deleted parts are considered as items nested within the corresponding paragraph. Given this testlet structure, it is commonly…

From the complex dynamic systems theory perspective, evaluating CALL pedagogy involves miscellaneous variables. It seems the ecosystem of the CALL environment necessitates an array of extralinguistic (Ecolinguistically situated) issues to be considered in any appraisal of the CALL milieu. To this end, this paper aims to develop and validate a…

Testing organizations are faced with increasing demand to provide subscores in addition to the total test score. However, psychometricians argue that most subscores do not have added value to be worth reporting. To have added value, subscores need to meet a number of criteria: they should be reliable, distinctive, and distinct from each other and…

Developing a diagnostic tool within the diagnostic measurement framework is the optimal approach to obtain multidimensional and classification-based feedback on examinees. However, end users may seek to obtain diagnostic feedback from existing item responses to assessments that have been designed under either the classical test theory or item…

Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment (CDA) is a type of educational assessment that is designed to measure specific knowledge structures and processing skills in students so as to provide information about their cognitive strengths and weaknesses (Leighton & Gierl, 2007). CDA has been instrumental in turning the attention of practitioners to more…

This study aims to develop and validate a multidimensional scale of willingness to communicate in a foreign language. Multidimensional random coefficient multinomial logit model was employed to analyze the scale. Likelihood deviance test and information criteria showed that a three-dimensional model fits significantly better than a two-dimensional…

Second language vocabulary acquisition has been modeled both as multidimensional in nature and as a continuum wherein the learner's knowledge of a word develops along a cline from recognition through production. In order to empirically examine and compare these models, the authors assess the degree to which the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS;…

As a construct definition, the current study develops a cognitive model describing the knowledge, skills, and abilities measured by critical reading test items on a high-stakes assessment used for selection decisions in the United States. Additionally, in order to establish generalizability of the construct meaning to other similarly structured…

The present study investigated the functioning of three psychometric models for cognitive diagnosis--the general diagnostic model, the fusion model, and latent class analysis--when applied to large-scale English as a second language listening and reading comprehension assessments. Data used in this study were scored item responses and incidence…

This article contends that the necessary links between constructs and test scores/decisions in language assessment must be established through principled design procedures that align three models: (1) a theoretical construct model; (2) a test development model; and (3) a psychometric scoring model. The theoretical construct model articulates the…

Tests the hypothesis that there is no monotonic relationship between increasing competence in different linguistic domains and growth in second-language proficiency. The article concludes with an introduction to some assessment models that can accommodate discontinuous growth patterns. These models can describe and model a student's qualitative…

Classroom-based formative assessment by teachers has received a good deal of renewed scholarly and policy interest. The overall aim of this article is to foreground some of the key constitutive issues in this approach to teacher assessment and to suggest possible ways of conceptualizing key epistemological and empirical questions. This discussion…

In response to the American Association of Applied Linguistics' presentation of the Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award for extraordinary contributions to the fields of language learning, teaching, and testing in May 2004, Merrill Swain described her own work as "moving in cycles of research, theory and practice." These "spirals" ("cycles…