Students on the BA International Business and Languages who spend a full academic year on a study visit abroad experience many new challenges such as a different culture, a new university, different academic practices, a foreign language, etc. The assessment methods for the year include the results of the modules taken in the partner universities,…

Individuals' use of language in contexts emerges from second-to-second processes of activating and integrating traces of past experiences--an interactionist view compatible with the study of language as a complex adaptive system but quite different from the trait-based framework through which measurement specialists investigate validity, establish…

Several research studies have proven a direct relationship between the amount of words known by a foreign language student and his/her language proficiency. Therefore, knowing the amount of words that our students are acquainted with would help teachers to predict their general ability in the foreign language. The aim of this study is to determine…

In recent times debates about language and languages have increasingly become the battleground on which debates about immigration to the United Kingdom (U.K.) are fought. Since 2002 a series of legislative measures has been introduced to ensure that those who wish to become naturalized as citizens of the U.K. or to settle permanently in the U.K.…

Academic writing and education in foreign and second languages both have lengthy histories. Their histories have diverged but also intersected. Matsuda (2005), for example, described the convergence in policies that led to a distinctive discipline of "L2 writing" in higher education in the U.S.A. during the latter part of the 20th century.…

Many tests classify each examinee into one of multiple performance levels on the basis of a combination of multiple-choice (MC) and constructed-response (CR) items. This study introduces a two-stage scoring method that identifies examinees whose MC scores place them near a cut point, advising scorers on which examinees will be most affected by…

The "Versant Spanish[TM] Test" applies state-of-the-art technology to language assessment in a quick and efficient tool designed for the purpose of "assessing an individual's ability to speak and understand spoken Spanish". According to the developers, the Pearson Education Group, the test is equally useful in academic as well as professional…

This article describes the process of design and implementation of GALACTICA ("Greek And Latin Accidence Consolidation Training, Internet-Centred Assessment") in support of the University of Oxford's Classics Faculty language consolidation classes. The context and aims of the previous paper-based "assessment" system are…

The present research was conducted to examine the relative effectiveness of two instructional approaches to second language vocabulary learning: the "Reading Only" (RO) approach and the "Reading Plus" (RP) approach. To carry out this study, sixty EFL students from Shahed Pre-University Center of Isfahan were selected and…

Students continually ask, "Does this count?" "Is this on the test?" They want to know how they'll be evaluated. Discover how to answer these questions in ways that shape student learning and keep teaching focused on what really matters. Written by language expert Paul Sandrock, this superb manual clarifies precisely what…

Noting the widespread use of multiple-choice items in tests in English language education in Thailand, this study compared their effect against that of constructed-response items. One hundred and fifty-two university undergraduates took a test of English structure first in constructed-response format, and later in three, stem-equivalent…

The effect of bilingualism on the cognitive skills of young children was investigated by comparing performance of 162 children who belonged to one of two age groups (approximately 3- and 4.5-year-olds) and one of three language groups on a series of tasks examining executive control and word mapping. The children were monolingual English speakers,…

Traditionally, practitioners interested in language test reform have focused on the qualities within an examination which result in either positive or negative impacts on participants, institutions, and society. Recent views suggest a multifaceted interaction among factors affecting language test reform. We introduce a model for test reform that…

The present study is aimed at finding the effect of Instructional software program in the learning of grammar on the achievement of teacher training students of Namakkal District. Parallel group experimental method was adopted in this study. A sample of 80 students studying in the teacher training college were selected on the basis of their…

This study aimed to (1) integrate relevant language learning models and theories, (2) construct a theoretical model of college students' English learning performance, and (3) assess the model fit between empirically observed data and the theoretical model proposed by the researchers of this study. Subjects of this study were 1,129 Taiwanese EFL…