The objectives of this study are firstly to explore students' self-assessment on four language competence: linguistic, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competences, secondly to find out whether there is any significant influence of students' length of language learning toward their self-assessment of communicative…

Science performance assessments (SPAs) are designed to elicit a wider range of scientific knowledge and abilities than ordinarily measured by more traditional paper-and-pencil tests. To engage in SPAs and thus demonstrate abilities such as scientific inquiry, students must interact with various participants and communicate in a variety of ways.…

This article presents a descriptive and Co-Constructive Approach to feedback related to performance in the interpersonal mode of communication on the Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA). The goal of this research study was to describe the discursive features of effective IPA feedback. To this end, critical discourse analysis of a feedback…

Raters are central to writing performance assessment, and rater development--training, experience, and expertise--involves a temporal dimension. However, few studies have examined new and experienced raters' rating performance longitudinally over multiple time points. This study uses operational data from the writing section of the MELAB (n =…

This study examined two types of classroom assessment events, the more closed convergent assessments (CA) versus the more open-ended divergent assessments (DA), to see if they influence learners differently in terms of motivation and learning strategies. Participants were 105 college freshmen in Taiwan with the same instructor placed under one…

This article reports on the implementation of the Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) in an Early Foreign Language Learning program. The goal of this research was to examine the performance of grade 4 and 5 students of Spanish on the IPA. Performance across the three communicative tasks is described and modifications to IPA procedures based on…

Despite the increasing interest in and need for test information for use in instructional practice and student learning, there have been few attempts to systematically link a diagnostic approach to English for academic purposes (EAP) writing instruction and assessment. In response to this need for research, this study examined the extent to which…

The purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of rater training in an L2 performance assessment and to examine the eligibility of L2 users of English as raters in L2 performance assessment. Rater training was conducted in order for raters to clearly understand the criteria, the evaluation items, and the evaluation procedure. In this…

Second language (L2) oral performance assessment always involves raters' subjective judgments and is thus subject to rater variability. The variability due to rater characteristics has important consequential impacts on decision-making processes, particularly in high-stakes testing situations (Bachman, Lynch, & Mason, 1995; A. Brown, 1995;…

Assessing the preparation of preservice candidates for quality teaching, both for mainstream students and for ELs, requires reliable and valid assessments that pay close attention to context, process, and reflection, factors that traditional evaluations of teaching either ignore or undervalue. In this article, the authors focus on one high-stakes…

Language performance assessments typically require human raters, introducing possible error. In international examinations of English proficiency, rater language background is an especially salient factor that needs to be considered. The existence of rater language background-related bias in writing performance assessment is the object of this…

Increasing numbers of English language learners enrolled in public schools has brought national attention to issues surrounding the education of linguistically diverse students. Teacher education programs have come under scrutiny for not doing an "adequate job of preparing teachers to teach diverse populations" (Hollins & Guzman,…

This study examined the percentage of task-sampling variability in performance assessment via a meta-analysis. In total, 50 studies containing 130 independent data sets were analyzed. Overall results indicate that the percentage of variance for (a) differential difficulty of task was roughly 12% and (b) examinee's differential performance of the…

The main purpose of this research is 1) to establish a framework for the test development and the constructs of writing performance test, 2) to implement a developed writing performance assessment, and 3) to examine the degree of reliability and validity of the assessment tasks and rating scales. Construct-based processing approach to testing…

Alderson (2005) suggests that diagnostic tests should identify strengths and weaknesses in learners' use of language and focus on specific elements rather than global abilities. However, rating scales used in performance assessment have been repeatedly criticized for being imprecise and therefore often resulting in holistic marking by raters…