Three tests of grammatical ability (Carrow Elicited Language Inventory, Test of Language Development, and Clinical Evaluation of Language Functions) were evaluated for content-oriented test construction. Content domains were found deficient when judged against an external standard as well as when examined according to their own content…

Analysis of surveys completed by 50 speech/language pathologists at facilities serving mentally retarded adults revealed that a wide array of language assessment instruments were used. The need to examine many commercial tests (developed and standardized on children) for adults is stressed. (CL)

Discusses two studies that explore the possibilities of adopting the C-Test (which involves the deletion of the second half of every other word in the text, leaving the first and last sentence intact) for testing Hebrew. Suggests the test be used with the cloze test for assessing similar things. (SED)

The author discusses his reaction to the CIRCUS test. (RC)

The primary purpose of this study was to compare the performance of three procedures to assess dimensionality that were investigated by R. Nandakumar (1994) at different test conditions to reflect the characteristics of language test data. Procedures investigated were nonlinear factor analysis, the procedure of P. Holland and P. Rosenbaum, and W.…

The article presents a scoring procedure that can be used to obtain an in-depth descriptive analysis of responses produced on elicited imitation tasks used to evaluate children with communication disorders. (Author)

Thirty children from two age levels (4 to 5 and 6 to 7 years) with diagnosed language problems were tested with four informal methods of language evaluation: spontaneous language sampling, elicited imitation, sentence completion, and grammatical judgment. Overall comparisons between tasks revealed significant correlations between spontaneous…

The language age equivalent scores on the Verbal Language Development Scale calculated from mother, father, and teacher reports on 15 preschool children were compared and found to be highly correlated. (Author)

Concern with performance assessment in key areas of curriculum in British and Welsh schools has prompted the development of instruments for measuring Welsh language skills. An account is given of the preparation of tests to assess the language skills of students with Welsh as a first language and as a second language. (PJM)

Investigates intonational differences according to the meanings of genuine yes/no questions and confirmation yes/no questions. Productions and perception tests were conducted. Results are discussed. (Author/VWL)

Explores the origin of the Test of English-as-a-Foreign-Language, with its distinctive characteristics, in a 1961 conference, and seeks thereby to gain an understanding of how developments in language testing theory--and perhaps theory in general--are blended with the requirements and possibilities of real-life implementation. (Author/JL)

Responds to an article on computerized adaptive second language (L2) testing, expressing concerns about the appropriateness of such tests for informing language educators about the language skills of L2 learners and users and fulfilling the intended purposes and achieving the desired consequences of language test use.The authors of the original…

Reports on a study that uses a range of analysis techniques to present validity evidence and to explore the equivalence of two revised and expanded versions of the Vocabulary Levels Test. (Author/VWL)

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) posits six levels of proficiency and defines these largely in relation to empirically derived difficulty estimates based on stakeholder perceptions of what language functions expressed by 'Can-do' statements can be successfully performed at each level. Though also containing much valuable…