A self-assessment test of Swedish as a second language is described. The test was designed as a self-diagnostic instrument for adult migrants to Sweden studying Swedish at labor training centers. The 1,500-item test provides students with information about their Swedish proficiency level as well as the proficiency needed for their professional…

Holistic evaluation, defined as the grading of an entire piece of writing without tallying or correcting specific errors, is discussed as preferable to discrete point testing or objective measures in assessing writing proficiency of English as a second language (ESL) students. The assessment process, in which the papers are evaluated as excellent,…

Since Upshur's (1969) original paper describing a picture-description test of oral communication ability, four empirical studies have been completed in which variants of the tests have been used. From these studies considerable new information on the tests' reliability and validity has become available. Indications are that the reliability is…

Oral tests for speaking skills evaluate two major skills: linguistic competence, including accuracy of pronunciation, vocabulary, and structure, and communication ease. Four factors affect students' oral performance: verbal intelligence, short-term auditory and visual memory, sound-symbol association skill, and grammatical analysis. Personality…

The analysis of a film is proposed as an alternative for one of the two required text analyses in the French examination for the Higher School Certificate in Australia. This entails the addition of film courses to the general curriculum. (Text is in French.) (TL)

Recent language testing research investigates factors other than language proficiency that may be responsible for systematic variance in language test performance. One such factor is the test takers' cognitive styles. The present study was carried out with the aim of finding the probable effects of Iranian EFL learners' cognitive styles on their…

Hauptschule (practical secondary school) pupils are more readily confused than Gymnasium (university-preparatory secondary school) pupils when confronted with false answers. Spelling tests should be designed with regard to the type of school. Introducing visual guides helps the Hauptschule pupils to better achievement in productive tests. (Text is…

This English textbook aims to determine minimum essentials in language and grammar, to provide methods for making correct form habitual, and to arrange the material so that it may be used in connection with the language work of the pupils outside the language recitation. Exercises, drills, games, and tests are employed. Objective measures of…

The second book in this English textbook series aims to determine minimum essentials in language and grammar, to provide methods for making correct form habitual, and to arrange the material so that it may be used in connection with the language work of the pupils outside the language recitation. Exercises, drills, games, and tests are employed.…

The recent psycholinguistic-sociolinguistic trend in foreign language teaching indicates a shift of interest away from quantitative data towards qualitative information of different kinds. Validity and relevance are stressed and so new test formats are demanded, as well as new methods of dealing with student answers. Item analysis techniques used…

THIS REPORT, BASED ON TESTS GIVEN TO HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS IN THE SPRING, 1967, DESCRIBES THE SLIGHT CHANGES MADE IN TESTING PROCEDURES AND GIVES TEST AND PLACEMENT RESULTS FOR 2,646 STUDENTS IN FRENCH, GERMAN, SPANISH, AND LATIN. TENTATIVE PLACEMENT IN FRENCH, GERMAN, AND SPANISH WAS BASED ON SCORES OBTAINED ON MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION READING…

AUDIOLINGUAL TEACHING METHODS HAVE CREATED THE NEED FOR NEW TESTING TECHNIQUES IN THE FOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS OF LISTENING, SPEAKING, AND WRITING. VARIOUS CURRENT METHODS AND SPECIFIC STANDARDIZED TESTS FOR EVALUATING EACH OF THE SKILLS, INCLUDING PURE SKILLS TESTS WHICH UTILIZE ONLY ONE SKILL IN BOTH STIMULUS AND RESPONSE AND HYBRID SKILLS TESTS…