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…

It has been argued in the literature on (language) testing that any act of testing/assessment can impact: (1) educators' curriculum design; (2) teachers' teaching practices; and (3) students' learning behaviors. This quality of any given testing situation or act of assessment has been called washback, or backwash if you will. Washback falls into…

In recent years, the Indonesian government has put greater emphasis on promoting critical thinking in the education system, including the notion of critical thinking in national examinations, curriculum, and graduate outcomes for school education. Nevertheless, as in many testing-oriented countries, fostering critical thinking in the Indonesian…

In a unique learning context, language-positive environments outside the classroom, not enclosed instruction on U.S. campuses, education abroad foreign language instructors develop distinct teaching practices. Education abroad researchers have accounted for informal learning opportunities, yet few have attended to onsite language instruction. This…

In this contribution, I argue for a radical reappraisal of accepted ideas about how English is taught and tested. I am not alone in questioning the validity of the current orthodoxy. Others have expressed views that correspond or are consistent with the points I make here. What I have sought to do is to synthesize them in the formulation of a…

For over a decade, the United Arab Emirates has used English as the medium of instruction in government schools. Previous research has concluded that the lack of English proficiency can make learning Science and Math difficult for students; however, research on students' experiences and the challenges they face in this area is limited. Therefore,…

Assessment and technology are two components that are very important in education. Assessment is the core of education, which provides teachers much information from their students and technology helps to achieve the learning goal more easily. Teachers are able to take the advantages of the integration of technology and assessment to get really…

While the potential of Dynamic Assessment (DA) and its variants (Computerized Dynamic Assessment (CDA) and Group Dynamic Assessment (GDA)) for EFL classrooms has been recognized, there is a lack of research on its practical implementation compared to the well-established field of Summative Assessment (SA). Thus, the objective of this qualitative…

This article reviews a selected sample of 70 empirical studies in journal articles and doctoral dissertations on language assessment in China between 2011 and 2018. Following a brief introduction to the history and current state of language assessment in China, the article presents a critical review of language assessment research on six themes…

While gamified technology integration in vocabulary instruction within a flipped classroom has yielded beneficial teaching outcomes, specific studies have raised concerns about potential adverse effects linked to this approach. As a result, conducting a comparative analysis between gamified technology and conventional paper-based methods within…

The use of four-skills language exams to support the achievement of curriculum goals in Japan is an under-researched yet critical topic. This study focuses on washback from the Cambridge B1 Preliminary and B2 First exams, which were used as fixed-point tests at a senior high school. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, utilizing data from…

Metaverse technology is becoming increasingly popular in educational environments around the world. However, before it is widely applied in public education for adolescents learning English as a foreign language (EFL), it is crucial to assess its effectiveness in comparison to traditional teaching approaches. Our study involved 336 seventh-grade…

In recent years, the use of external proficiency-based tests to measure learners' language ability has increased significantly, in part thanks to the Seal of Biliteracy movement. However, there exists very limited research investigating the influence of such tests and their subsequent outcomes data on teachers' practices. As such, this study…

This study explores the effectiveness of using ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) language model, as an Automated Essay Scoring (AES) tool for grading English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' essays. The corpus consists of 50 essays representing various types including analysis, compare and contrast, descriptive, narrative, and opinion…

This study investigates washback effects of IELTS test on university teachers' adoption of teaching materials in the classroom in China and see how a high-stake language exam affects their teaching practices and how they and their students perceive the effectiveness of the pedagogic adjustments. To this end, individual interview to five teacher…