Discusses aspects of the revised People's University Certificate English 1, including: (1) function of catalogs in setting forth learning goals (topics, situations, intentions) for textbook writers and course directors; (2) advantages of authentic exercise texts; (3) weighting linguistic skills; (4) vocabulary work; and (5) developing grammatical…

This study inquired into the effect of testing on foreign language learning. The main question was: Do tests of communicative proficiency, when administered in lieu of currently prevailing discrete-point item tests, further the student's spontaneous communicative ability? Discussion of results indicates uses for both types of tests. (CHK)

The best assessment instrument is the one which tests the students on linguistic patterns and speech events familiar to the student; these instruments must be oriented to the speech communities to be tested. Validation of these materials must also take place within the target population. At the same time these testing materials must test both…

Described is the development of the Test of Syntactical Abilities (TSA), an instrument for measuring deaf children's ability to comprehend and produce syntactically correct written sentences. (Author/IM)

Links the theory of washback with the broader concept of impact in educational measurement and to the recent debate on construct validity associated with Messick. Notes that for many years it was asserted that language tests negatively impacted teaching and learning, an impact known as washback. (25 references) (Author/CK)

Examines the concept of washback as an instance of the consequential aspect of construct validity, linking positive washback to direct assessments and the need to minimize construct underrepresentation and construct-irrelevant difficulty in the test. The article explains washback as referring to the extent to which test use influences language…

Focuses on the form of the input for English for academic purposes listening tests. Reports on the development of a test in two audiotaped versions: a scripted monologue and an unscripted discussion of the same topic by three speakers. (Author/VWL)

Performance of 31 deaf students (ages 7-17) on 15 language and literacy measures found that students scoring highest on a passage-comprehension measure also demonstrated greater proficiency on specific skills (such as reading more listed words). In addition, students who used Signing Exact English (SEE) for 5 years or more scored better than those…

Investigates the relationship between test takers' strategy and their performance on second-language tests (SLTP) comprising an 80-item Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategy Questionnaire and a 70-item standardized language test. Results explain SLTP by grammar and reading ability; cognitive processing by comprehending, storing, and retrieval…

Suggests that second language learners could benefit from being made aware of the semantic components that unify verbs that display a certain syntactic behavior and the semantic components that exclude other verbs from participating in this behavior. Findings of a study in which production and judgment data on the behavior of "change of state" and…

Explores relationships among test-taker characteristics and test performance. Suggests test-taking strategies play a role in mediating between test taker characteristics and performance. Findings suggests that if classroom teachers were able to determine what their students are doing while taking tests and were able to apply those strategies that…

Analysis of a dataset of 38,887 Spanish-speaking children aged 4-6 who took the Pre-Language Assessment Scales Espanol indicates serious concerns with test validity. The "non-non" label--nonverbal in both Spanish and English--may be an artifact of poor assessment. Policies requiring routine oral native-language assessment of…

Examines Japanese English-as-a-Foreign-Language learners' requestive strategies. Data were obtained through the Situation Assessment Questionnaire and the Discourse Completion test and analyzed in terms of the relationship of the subjects' awareness of situation and frequency of the word "please," characteristics of subjects' strategies…

A study examined the eliciting potential of two tasks, one for proto-imperative and another for proto-declarative communication intentions. These tasks were offered to 18 toddlers with deafness. Results indicate both tasks process sufficient eliciting potential to measure both the prelinguistic and early linguistic illocutionary force of children…

Suggests the following methods for improving university-level German language education curricula: reduce skill-development time through immersion programs, adopt Zertifikat Deutsch als Fremdsprache as the proficiency standard for advanced students, and include literature from a variety of liberal arts disciplines in the reading materials for…