Despite calls for engaging assessments targeting young language learners (YLLs) between 8 and 13 years old, what makes assessment tasks engaging and how such task characteristics affect measurement quality have not been well studied empirically. Furthermore, there has been a dearth of validity research about technology-enhanced speaking tests for…

Several exploratory analyses of the fifths data generated by Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) item analyses were developed in order to evaluate the effects of options on the discriminability of difficult items and to identify difficult items with low, unreliable biserials that had been rejected by test developers, but for which…

One of the item types in the Listening Comprehension section of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) test is the dialogue. Because the dialogue item pool needs to have an appropriate balance of items at a range of difficulty levels, test developers have examined items at various difficulty levels in an attempt to identify their…

Methods of computerized adaptive testing using conventional scoring methods in order to develop a computerized placement test for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) were studied. As a consequence of simulation studies during the first phase of the study, the multilevel testing paradigm was adopted to produce three test levels…

This paper traces developments in educational psychology and measurement that led to the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) and the application of educational measurement terms such as validity and reliability to testing. Use of a table of specifications for planning…

A collection of articles on second-language testing includes: "The State of Language Testing in the 1990s" (J. Charles Alderson); "The Exercise of Power and Control in the Rhetorics of Testing" (Elana Shohamy); "Institutional and Political Aspects of Language Testing" (Bernard Spolsky); "Language Planning Policy…