Dr. Charles W. Stansfield is widely recognized as one of the most important figures in contemporary language testing. He is respected and relied upon by leading language professionals in education, government agencies, academia, and the private sector. During his 40 years of working with languages, he has been a secondary school teacher of…

This article examines the nature of confidence in relation to abilities, personality, and metacognition. Confidence scores were collected during the administration of Reading and Listening sections of the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT) to 824 native speakers of English. Those confidence scores were correlated…

This paper concerns the divisibility of comprehension subskills measured in L2 listening and reading tests. Motivated by the administration of the new Web-based English as a Second Language Placement Exam (WB-ESLPE) at UCLA, this study addresses the following research questions: first, to what extent do the WB-ESLPE listening and reading items…

English is the associate official language in India and serves as a unifying force in this multilingual country. The teaching of English in K-12 settings focuses on the skills of reading and writing. Listening and speaking skills are not awarded much time, if any, in most classrooms or test settings; only two Boards of Examinations mandate their…

Previous studies found inconsistent results about the factor structure of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), with one study finding a two-factor structure and the other, a three-factor solution. This study investigated those inconsistencies and provided further information about the TOEFL factor structure. It was hypothesized that…

This study examined word-finding ability, measured by accuracy and latency of response, in a group of eight preschool stutterers (mean age 4.2 years) and two groups of eight nonstutterers (mean age 4.4 years) matched according to age, gender, race, and receptive vocabulary. Results indicated that, as a group, preschool children who stutter and…

A discussion of the differences between the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), an American test battery, and the Cambridge English Examinations (Cambridge), a British battery, focuses on the different approaches to language test development embodied in the tests as the source of difficulty in translating between them for individual…

Assessment of second language reading comprehension has evolved from a relatively narrow conceptualization of reading as a process of mastering hierarchically ordered subskills, with the author as primary creator of meaning, to reading as an interaction among reader, author, and text. Reading assessment has several purposes: sorting students;…

The concepts of language proficiency, limited language proficiency, and comparably limited language proficiency are examined. Studies critical of the instruments used for making assessments according to these concepts are reviewed. The effects of these concepts on proposed legislation involving bilingual education are discussed. It is suggested…

Restricted sampling with which the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities was standardized was investigated by simulating a multivariate population comprised of four variables and having specified means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations. (Author/CL)

This is a discussion of the results of the Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery used to determine the potential language-learning ability of secondary school students. (CK)

A two-factor analysis of variance with multiple measurements on one factor was conducted among the 40 items of the Vocabulary test of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) for six language groups. All sources of variance were found significant beyond the one per cent level. (Author/RC)

The transfer of students at 13+ from middle to high school requires high school teachers to assess heterogenous groups of children from different middle schools. Ways of predicting students' success at further language study are suggested. (RM)

Each section of the Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery and the CREDIF CGM 62 tests is briefly described. (RM)

While the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines have many proponents, critics find testing according to the guidelines costly and time-consuming. Winthrop College (South Carolina) has developed an approach to testing foreign language majors that tests all skill areas, can be administered using no…