I encourage the editors of and contributors to "Language Assessment Quarterly" to continue, and to extend, three directions that are integral to the development of the field of language assessment: (a) to broaden the scope of inquiry and contexts that inform knowledge about language assessment; (b) to deepen the theoretical premises and…

This article describes a study that emerged as a result of the severe acute respiratory syndrome crisis that struck Hong Kong in 2003. One outcome of the severe acute respiratory syndrome crisis was that all personnel in all educational institutions in Hong Kong were compelled to wear face masks for the period April-August 2003. Consequently, the…

This article presents an interview with Dr. John Trim, which was recorded at his home in Cambridge on January 21, 2005, not long after his 80th birthday in October 2004. Although he would not consider himself a language tester, Dr. Trim has followed the trends in language assessment since the 1960s and his own work, particularly as a coauthor of…

Second language writing scholars have undertaken descriptions of English-language writing instruction in a variety of international settings, describing the role of various contextual factors in shaping English-language writing instruction. This article describes English-language writing instruction at various levels in Poland, noting how it is…

Following the development and standardization of the British Sign Language (BSL) Receptive Skills Test (Herman et al., 1999), the test was made widely available to professionals working with deaf children. Test users were asked to return completed score-sheets on individual children they had tested in order to compare a selection of children from…

This study was designed to explore a model of communicative competence (Abbeduto & Nuccio, 1989) and identify whether its components could (a) predict pragmatic language difficulties for children with emotional or behavioral disorders (E/BD) and (b) describe the semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic language ability as well as the social skills of…

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the possible presence of dissociations in the speech and language skills of young children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) using a correlation-based statistical procedure [Bates, E., Appelbaum, M., Salcedo, J., Saygin, A. P., & Pizzamiglio, L. (2003). Quantifying dissociations in…

This study applied generalizability theory to investigate the contributions of persons, items, sections, and language backgrounds to the score dependability of the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC). I replicated and extended Brown's (1999) study of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), using data from two…

The present study is a continuation of the work presented in the 2001 article by Greidanus and Nienhuis. In the current study, we also examine the quality of word knowledge among advanced learners of French as a second language (L2) by means of a word associates test. We studied the development of word knowledge among six groups of…

Although the primary use of the speaking section of the Test of English as a Foreign Language™ Internet-based test (TOEFL® iBT Speaking test) is to inform admissions decisions at English medium universities, it may also be useful as an initial screening measure for international teaching assistants (ITAs). This study provides criterion-related…

The programs WordSmith and VocabProfile were used to research lexical differences between essays written in English by Spanish undergraduates and a set of essays independently judged as being of TWE grade 6 standard. The results indicated that writing by this group of students was generally characterised by low lexical variation, a preponderance…

The Swedish school system comprises: (1) Pre-primary school (Forskola), typical age 1-5; (2) Preschool class in the compulsory school (Grundskola) typical age 6 (participation voluntary); (3) Compulsory school, typical age 7-16, grades 1-9, and (4) Upper secondary school, 17 programmes (4 mainly academic, 13 vocational), typical age 16-19, grades…

This study investigated the effects of second language (L2) proficiency and task-induced cognitive workload on participants' speech production and retention of information in an environment designed to simulate the demands faced by pilots receiving instructions from air-traffic controllers. Three groups of 20 participants (one…

This research paper describes the benefits of using an activity-based rhetorical perspective to develop English for specific purposes (ESP) test specifications. This approach expands the potential of ESP test specifications to analyze and describe target language use (TLU) situations, TLU tasks, and ESP test tasks. Multiple activity systems are…

Iranian Journal of Language Studies (IJLS) is devoted to all areas of language and linguistics. Its aim is to present work of current interest in all areas of language study. No particular linguistic theories or scientific trends are favored: scientific quality and scholarly standing are the only criteria applied in the selection of papers…