The study involving 64 primary grade children examined identification of stimuli on three picture articulation tests--Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation, the Photo Articulation Test, and the Templin-Darley Tests of Articulation. Significant differences between tests and between age groups appeared. (Author/SB)

In the first experiment, the imitative skills of four-year-olds were assessed as a function of sentence comprehension and delayed imitation. The second experiment examined the relationship between the Carrow Elicited Language Inventory (CELI) and Developmental Sentence Scoring under three imitative conditions: zero-, three-, and five-second…

Understanding the purposes of different types of testing is essential if test results are to be interpreted properly. (DD)

Describes underlying concepts and current issues in communicative testing and illustrates application of these ideas by examining theoretical constructs, issues, and work done so far in relation to second language testing. (Author/BK)

The Elicited Language Inventory (ELI) was administered in standardized fashion and in a modified procedure with contextually supported cues and grammatical morpheme use under the two ELI presentation conditions was compared with use of the same morphemes in spontaneous speech. Results favored modified use of the ELI with contextually cued items…

Language samples were elicited from 18 kindergarten and 18 second-grade students, using three variations of an imperative sentence language sampling procedure. (Author/CL)

Examines linguistic, psychometric, and clinical aspects of the Test for Sentence Development, a subtest of a new Dutch language production battery, the Schlichting Test voor Taalproductie. The advantage of the new test is that very young children can be assessed systematically, which was not possible previously. (Author/VWL)

Examined the extent to which years of exposure to a language, amount of language input at home and at school, and amount of exposure to reading and other literacy activities in a language relate to observed bilingual performance in young children as obtained from teacher and parent reports. (VWL)

Reports on the results of research conducted by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) on the construct validity of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and Oral Interview procedure. A discussion of the results and suggestions for further research are included. (Author/VWL)

The notion of washback, that testing influences teaching, is explored and a series of possible hypotheses are advanced. The empirical research in general education and in language education is reviewed to determine whether washback actually exists, how it can be measured, and what accounts for its form. Proposals for future research are suggested.…

Discusses a serious problem that has existed for years in language research with regard to the use of the inferential statistic known as the t test. (12 references) (JL)

Provides a history of validation in language testing, discusses current approaches to validation in language testing (hypothesis about testing outcomes, relevant evidence for testing the hypothesis, developing a validity argument), and gives an overview of current challenges in language-test validation (defining the language construct to be…

Presents a framework that takes as its starting point an analysis of test purpose, and then shows how purpose can be systematically related to test design. Argues that the way forward for vocabulary assessment is to take account of test purposes in the design and validation of tests, as well as considering an interactionalist approach to construct…

Modified the three-parameter model to include an additional random effect for items nested within the same testlet. Fitted the new model to 86 testlets from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and compared standard parameters (discrimination, difficulty, and guessing) with those obtained through traditional modeling. Discusses the…

Examines the relationship between and the relevance of second language acquisition (SLA) and language testing (LT). The relevance of LT to SLA is examined based on written interviews with leading scholars in SLA who were asked about the relevance of LT to their work. (Author/VWL)