This article presents the author's response to Xiaoming Xi's paper titled "How do we go about investigating test fairness?" In the paper, Xi offers "a means to fully integrate fairness investigations and practice". Given the current importance accorded to fairness in the language testing community, Xi makes a case for viewing fairness as an aspect…

Twelve-month-olds realize that when an agent cannot see an object, her incomplete perceptions still guide her goal-directed actions. What would happen if the agent had incomplete perceptions because she could see only one part of the object, for example one side of a screen? In the present research, 16-month-olds were first shown an agent who…

An item banking method that does not use Item Response Theory (IRT) is described. This method provides a comparable grading system across schools that would be suitable for low-stakes testing. It uses the Angoff standard-setting method to obtain item ratings that are stored with each item. An example of such a grading system is given, showing how…

Can infants, in the very first stages of word learning, use their perceptual sensitivity to the phonetics of speech while learning words? Research to date suggests that infants of 14 months cannot learn two similar-sounding words unless there is substantial contextual support. The current experiment advances our understanding of this failure by…

"Educators Resource Directory" is designed to provide educators, administrators, and other education professionals with immediate access to a unique combination of educational resources, along with important educational statistics and rankings. "Educators Resource Directory" includes associations, publications, trade shows,…

This is an account of a portion of the research on cognitive, personality, and social psychology at ETS since the organization's inception. The topics in cognitive psychology are the structure of abilities; in personality psychology, response styles and social and emotional intelligence; and in social psychology, prosocial behavior and stereotype…

Humanistic principles emphasize the importance of the individual and specific human needs. Humanism in education has been in concern during the last few decades. However, there are controversies as whether to use its principles in foreign language classrooms or not. The present paper provides an overview of the major assumptions underlying…

The rate at which people process information appears to influence many aspects of cognition across the lifespan. However, many commonly accepted measures of "processing speed" may require goal maintenance, manipulation of information in working memory, and decision-making, blurring the distinction between processing speed and executive…

Researchers have found a correlation between emotional intelligence (EI) and success in the workplace. As a result, many companies have invested a large amount of resources into EI testing during their hiring process. In the United States, corporations are spending over $33 billion on hiring, training, and development. In addition to the increase…

Language-use strategies are considered potentially effective approaches that learners select to accomplish a second- or foreign-language task. In the past three decades, there has been a proliferation of research concerned with learners' strategy use at different levels of language ability and the influence of L1 learner strategies on L2 language…

Out-of-class study time is essential in students' language learning, but few studies in ELT measure out-of-class study time or investigate how teachers can encourage, rather than demand it. In Japan, out-of-class study time is lower than might be expected, ranging from zero to an hour per week. This study therefore sets out to establish those…

This paper discusses findings from a study investigating feedback efficacy on the accurate use of prepositions by ESL learners in written work over a period of 12 weeks. The study involved two treatment groups and a control group comparing the differential effects of the focused indirect with the unfocused indirect corrective feedback on the…

This longitudinal study examined the extent to which teachers' participation in a 3-year professional development program enhanced their self-efficacy and prompted changes in science instruction in the early elementary grades. The study used a mixed-methods design, and included 39 teachers who taught in kindergarten, first grade, or second…

Because of the large number of students involved, statewide assessments used throughout the United States are designed to be highly efficient with respect to administration and scoring. This constrains the formats that can be used and consequently limits testing to a subset of competencies typically associated with the education standards being…

The process of taking a high-stakes test stretches well beyond the day of the test itself; indeed, months may be spent preparing for such a test. Strategy research has proved to be a fruitful means of investigating the test-taking process, but it has typically relied on only one research approach at one contact point. This study explores three…