In this Brief Report, we describe an evaluation of and revisions to a rubric adapted from the Jacobs et al.'s (1981) ESL COMPOSITION PROFILE, with four rubric categories and 20-point rating scales, in the context of an intensive English program writing placement test. Analysis of 4 years of rating data (2016-2021, including 434 essays) using…

The accuracy of placement results undoubtedly affects students' subsequent learning achievements in language programs. Although there has been a growing body of studies in the field of heritage language (HL) education, research on HL placement remains scarce, and little is known about the most appropriate and effective ways to place heritage…

Placement tests are used to support a particular need in a local context--to determine the best starting place for a student entering a specific programme of language study. This brief report will focus on the development of an innovative placement test with self-directed elements for our local needs at a university in Canada for students studying…

Morphological awareness is the metalinguistic realization that words consist of meaningful roots and affixes that can be isolated and manipulated. Learners at different proficiency levels use various forms of background knowledge such as cultural knowledge, technical knowledge, religious knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, and contextual visuals. The…

Various approaches help determine students' need for language support courses. Some programs use standardized language proficiency test scores, which are available from the admissions process; others use local placement tests, which are typically designed to be aligned with local language needs and ESL course curricula. Using local placement tests…

This article details the challenges and best practices of evaluating second language learners for placement into postsecondary Spanish language courses. The literature on testing for placement purposes in second language acquisition and language testing provides a great deal of insight, but language programs must make many decisions as well that…

This study employed a mixed-methods approach to examine how rater performance develops during a semester-long rater certification program for an English as a Second Language (ESL) writing placement test at a large US university. From 2016 to 2018, we tracked three groups of novice raters (n = 30) across four rounds in the certification program.…

This study details the development of a local test designed to place university Spanish students (n = 719) into one of the four different course levels and to distinguish between traditional L2 learners and early bilinguals on the basis of their linguistic knowledge, regardless of the variety of Spanish they were exposed to. Early bilinguals…

Research is scarce about the lexical processes undertaken by thousands of L2 learners worldwide who already command one or more languages. Some aspects involved in lexical organisation and production, such as clustering and switching, have been traditionally approached through manual methods, which depend on subjective judgments of semantic…

This paper reports on a study aimed to investigate students' development in English proficiency over a four-year partially English-taught programme that did not integrate any explicit language learning goals. Additionally, the study investigated their perceptions concerning language gains and experiences in the programme. Both quantitative and…

This study scrutinized the effects of words' superiority, regularity, frequency and length on the intermediate and advanced EFL learner's visual word recognition. Moreover, it attempted to check whether each of these parameters could be statistically a significant predictor on recognition tasks. Accordingly, 118 intermediate and 127 advanced adult…

First Language (L1) has been assumed to play a role in Second Language ability (Bachman & Palmer, 1996). However, the interplay between them across skill, task, or scoring criteria is more complex (Hamp-Lyons & Davies, 2008). Using Many-Facets Rasch Measurement, this study investigates the main effects of examinee ability, rater severity,…

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Iowa State University administration to impose face coverings and other safety regulations across the university campus. To comply with these safety measures, several changes to the English Placement Test of Oral Communication (EPT OC) had to be made. This paper discusses how the EPT OC was adapted to comply with…

A research study on the L2 Motivational Self-systems (L2MSS) and technology acceptance of Foreign Language Learners (EFL) in relation to Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs) is warranted. In response, 336 Iranian EFL learners participated in three LMOOC platforms, learned language online in line with their language institutes, and…

The Elicited Imitation Test (EIT) is widely recognized for its reliability in research settings as a proficiency assessment tool. However, there exists a need to examine its predictive validity in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. This study investigates the extent to which the EIT, alongside the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), can…