This research project addresses the validity of assessments used to measure the performance of English language learners (ELLs), such as those mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002). The goals of the research are to help educators understand and improve ELL performance by investigating the validity of their current…

Purpose: The major purpose of this study was to provide information about expected spoken language skills of preschool-age children who are deaf and who use a cochlear implant. A goal was to provide "benchmarks" against which those skills could be compared, for a given age at implantation. We also examined whether parent-completed…

This study investigates the impact of an online workbook on the attitudes of 245 second language (L2) Spanish learners toward this pedagogical tool over two consecutive semesters. The treatment consisted of four hours of classroom instruction and one set of online homework per week, during two consecutive semesters. Students' attitudes toward the…

This paper describes the development and validation of the Cognate Awareness Test (CAT), which measures cognate awareness in Spanish-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) in fourth and fifth grade. An investigation of differential performance on the two subtests of the CAT (cognates and noncognates) provides evidence that the instrument is…

This paper presents an empirical study investigating the relationship between vocabulary size and the skills of listening, reading and writing in English as a foreign language (EFL). The participants were 88 EFL learners from lower secondary education whose language skills were assessed as part of the national school leaving examination in…

Although the foreign-language profession routinely stresses the importance of technology for the curriculum, many teachers still harbor deep-seated doubts as to whether or not a hybrid course, much less a completely distance-learning class, could provide L2 learners with a way to reach linguistic proficiency, especially with respect to oral…

According to the Medical Council of Malawi, one of the conditions for a licence to be granted to an individual who wants to practise medicine in Malawi is the practitioner's ability to speak and write English fluently. This means that the expatriate medical practitioner is not required by law to demonstrate fluency in Chichewa (the national…

Test validity is predicated on there being a lack of bias in tasks, items, or test content. It is well-known that factors such as test candidates' mother tongue, life experiences, and socialization practices of the wider community may serve to inject subtle interactions between individuals' background and the test content. When the gender of the…

To investigate the practicality of developing short forms of the Porch Index of Communicative Ability, the results from tests previously administered to 222 aphasic patients were analyzed. (Author/LS)

This test, conducted to prove that closed vowels can be heard in fricative utterances as open vowels in explosive utterances, gives further evidence for the closing action of constrictives and the opening action of occlusives. It also reveals a possible articulatory and auditive convergence between consonants and vowels. (Text is in French.)…

The paper notes the difficulties with most formal tests of language skills when applied to the assessment of communication and precommunication skills in individuals with severe and multiple handicaps. General principles for assessment and a flexible assessment device are summarized. The Functional Communication Assessment is offered as a basic…

The development of an empirically based model of communicative competence is discussed in terms of conceptual, statistical, and methodological considerations. A distinction is made between descriptive and working models of communicative competence. Working models attempt to show how components of communicative competence are interrelated…

The prime contention of this paper is that applied linguists are capable of making a more substantial contribution than they have hitherto to the field of Language Skills Measurement. (Author)

The study investigated the effect of "item density" on item difficulty in passage-related language tests. Item density refers to the number and frequency of items in relation to clear text. The format used was a passage with underlinings to signal the language situations out of which the items were constructed. American College Testing…