Corpus-based studies have offered the domain definition inference for test developers. Yet, corpus-based studies on temporal fluency measures (e.g., speech rate) have been limited, especially in the context of academic lecture settings. This made it difficult for test developers to sample representative fluency features to create authentic…

The current paper intends to exploit the Many Facet Rasch Model to investigate and compare the impact of situations (items) and raters on test takers' performance on the Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT) and Discourse Self-Assessment Tests (DSAT). In this study, the participants were 110 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students at…

This study is a conceptual replication of Ellis' 'Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language: A psychometric study', published in "Studies in Second Language Acquisition" (2005), aiming to establish the importance of including belief statements (hypothesized to increase processing demands) in the design of Elicited…

This study explores the impact of sociocultural theory-based instruction on enhancing L2 learners' writing skills including grammatical accuracy, coherence, cohesion, task response, and lexical resources for the IELTS. To this end, a cohort of 40 participants, spanning intermediate and advanced proficiency levels, was divided into experimental and…

In second language listening assessment and pedagogy, practitioners hold different views on whether to repeat a listening text in contexts where inferences about listening ability are to be drawn from task performance. To address this issue, we investigated the effects of repeating the listening text (double play) on listener performance,…

Extensive oral tasks or monologues of different types (e.g., presentations, storytelling) are often used as second language acquisition tasks in the fields of language learning and language testing. Pre-task planning time is a common provision to test-takers who may use different strategies to prepare their response. High-stakes tests, such as the…

This quasi-experimental study examines the impact of a diagnosis-based pedagogical intervention on the development of micro English as a foreign language (EFL) reading abilities over time. Specifically, 105 first-year graduate students in a Chinese university completed three diagnostic reading assessments at the beginning, middle, and end of a…

Establishing a cut score is a crucial aspect of the test development process since the selected cut score has the potential to impact students' performance outcomes and shape instructional strategies within the classroom. Therefore, it is vital for those involved in test development to set a cut score that is both fair and justifiable. This cut…

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the educational landscape in a way unseen before. Educational institutions are navigating between offline and online learning worldwide. Computer-based testing is rapidly taking over paper-and-pencil testing as the dominant mode of assessment. In some settings, computer-based and…

Comparing language tests and test preparation materials holds important implications for the latter's validity and reliability. However, not enough studies compare such materials across a wide range of indices. Therefore, this study investigated the text complexity of IELTS academic reading tests (IRT) and IELTS reading practice tests (IRPrT).…

This study examines the efficacy of artificial intelligence (AI) in creating parallel test items compared to human-made ones. Two test forms were developed: one consisting of 20 existing human-made items and another with 20 new items generated with ChatGPT assistance. Expert reviews confirmed the content parallelism of the two test forms.…

Local item dependency (LID) occurs when test-takers' responses to one test item are affected by their responses to another. It can be problematic if it causes inflated reliability estimates or distorted person and item measures. The cued-recall reading comprehension test in Hu and Nation's (2000) well-known and influential coverage--comprehension…

This study delves into writing scores in both tests, aiming to uncover the reasons behind score differences. Through comprehensive comparative analysis, this research explores scoring patterns, criteria, and score distributions in IELTS and PTE writing sections. It investigates sources of score variation, including task design, rating criteria,…

We examined whether English language proficiency (ELP) related to interim reading and math performance differently when academic assessments were administered to students in either English or Spanish. We also tested these effects with Spanish language proficiency (SLP) as well as jointly with ELP and SLP. Students from a midwestern suburban school…

Consideration of the influence of English language skills during testing is an understandable requirement for fair and valid cognitive test interpretation. Several professional standards and expert recommendations exist to guide psychologists as they attempt to engage in best practices when assessing English learners (ELs). Nonetheless, relatively…