Ofqual has contracted the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to develop, administer and analyse the National Reference Test (NRT) in English and maths. This report represents an overview of the findings of the 2018 testing process. In February/March 2018 a random sample of around 12,000 year 11 students from over 300 schools took…

In parallel with an increased focus on border security in immigration and citizenship policy in the UK (the so-called 'hostile environment' policy), Government-approved English language tests for visa and immigration purposes were officially labelled 'Secure English Language Tests' (SELTs) in 2010. The proximity of security concerns in language…

Accrediting agencies for English language programs, such as the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation (CEA), require a plan in writing for monitoring and reviewing assessment practices. Nonetheless, web-search queries such as "assessing assessment," "how to assess assessment," "assessing assessment…

Chemistry is traditionally perceived as difficult to comprehend. Its mastery requires that a variety of concepts be linked to form an organized knowledge system. The connections need to be made not only between the concepts associated with the macroscopic level of the chemistry triplet but also between the submicroscopic and symbolic levels. Many…

Purpose: Cognition and language difficulties are frequently reported in both children and adults with epilepsy. The majority of the existing research has focused on pediatric epilepsy, documenting impairments in learning, academics, and social-emotional functioning. In comparison, language deficits in younger and older adults with epilepsy have…

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing -- as can be clearly observed not only from the rising recognition of assistance tools such as Siri (Apple) but also from the newly introduced Google Voiced Translator. Yet, some crucial benchmarks still have to be supplied before it can act as a proxy for a real instructor: imagination, creativity, and…

Research on test change often documents high-stakes English test impact on English language learning, whereas evidence for simultaneous impact on affective predictors of learning is still missing. We tested a theoretical model positing that changing high-stake English tests (English Language Requirements for University Entrance, in this study)…

In the present study, we examined relations between children's language and literacy learning opportunities, initial skills, and maternal education. We assessed children's (n = 1,751 in 461 early childhood classrooms) initial language and literacy skills using standardized measures, and caregivers reported maternal education via questionnaires. We…

To score an essay response, raters draw on previously trained skills and knowledge about the underlying rubric and score criterion. Cognitive processes such as remembering, forgetting, and skill decay likely influence rater performance. To investigate how forgetting influences scoring, we evaluated raters' scoring accuracy on TOEFL and GRE essays.…

Vocabulary mastery is critical to English as Foreign Language students. Mobile technologies enable students to learn vocabulary without space and time limitations. However, existing mobile-assisted vocabulary learning research often employed teacher-directed activities that increased instructors' workload, undermined student motivation or targeted…

The present study investigated the association between vocabulary size and depth of Iranian EFL learners at different language proficiency levels. Additionally, the extent that this relationship could be different for low-and high-word-frequency bands was probed. In so doing, the Word Associates Test (WAT), the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), the…

We evaluated the effects of tact and listener instruction on the emergence of bidirectional intraverbal relations with 6 typically developing Brazilian children, using an adapted alternating treatment design with pretest and posttest probes. In listener instruction, participants selected pictures that corresponded to spoken foreign-language words.…

Morphological awareness is regarded as a significant predictor of vocabulary acquisition, reading comprehension, and the advancement of various literary competences. Thus, the present study sought to investigate tertiary EFL students' morphological awareness of English in terms of morphological identification and morphological structure awareness.…

The language assessment literacy of English language teachers has been one of the topics of discussion in the language testing field. In this article, I focus on the need to expand research constructs and methodologies to understand, in depth, the language assessment literacy for these key players in language assessment. I first explain the need…

The "2019-2020 WIDA Assessment Guidance" provides information on the following 10 topics: (1) English Language Proficiency Requirements; (2) WIDA Assessments in Grades K-12; (3) ACCESS Annual Assessments Testing Window; (4) Indiana English Learner Entrance and Exit Criteria; (5) Test Results and Reporting; (6) User Roles and…