Underlying concepts and current issues in communicative testing are described, and several promising approaches to developing communicative tests are outlined. It is suggested that appropriate testing is likely to have dramatic effects on the format and content of foreign language curricula and on student motivation because of increased relevance.…

Describes techniques which enable high school teachers to use German in their classes as a means of communication and not just as an abstract problem for students to master. Covers using different media techniques, students as teachers, different approaches to the textbook, culture materials, and oral interview tests. (EKN)

Describes the criteria behind the development of the English Language Testing Service system, a new language proficiency evaluation instrument developed by the British Council. This system is based on an analysis of foreign students' communication needs in the context of their professional training and academic life. Societe Nouvelle Didier…

Examines various forms of pure skills and skills combination laboratory testing developed at the Geddes Language Center (GLC) of Boston University during the past 10 years. Discusses suggestions for refinements and basic testing principles for each format, based on an evaluation of oral/aural exams on file at GLC. (MES)

Concerns research in the use of cloze tests to measure a particular language skill when a standardized paper-and-pencil test is not an obviously appropriate validating instrument. The conversational cloze test proved to be superior to a written or prose cloze test in measuring the students' oral ability. Statistical tables are given. (Author/PJM)

Discusses various test types, and specifically the placement test for German as a foreign language at Bonn University, describing the segments: multiple-choice questions and "fill-in" dictations based on given texts. Test content varies according to students' nationality. Grading procedures are also described. (IFS/WGA)

Presents results of an investigation into the test-retest reliability of the short form of the Modern Language Aptitude Test, with Canadian samples. (AM)

Discusses in detail a technique, called LES (Listen, Enumerate, and Start), for developing the listening skills of adult ESL (English as a Second Language) students. Students listen to an utterance and then answer questions such as the number of words in a particular sentence, the number of unknown words, etc. (CFM)

Analyzes the challenges to constructing a professional identity faced by foreign-trained teachers enrolled in the Upgrading Pilot Program for Foreign-Trained Teachers developed by the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. Implications for language education, language testing, professional identity, and policy making are discussed. (JL)

Argues that tests have always been used as a means of political and social control. Maintains that test results are unreliable, especially at the extremes, that their predictive power is weak and that language testers need to be skeptical and need to insist on complete information on candidates' backgrounds for selection decision making. (10…

A survey of 216 clinicians investigated their degree of satisfaction with tests of language development and testing processes and found that school clinicians were significantly less satisfied than clinicians in clinic/hospital settings. Also, clinicians with caseloads greater than 40 expressed greater dissatisfaction with tests and the testing…

Cognitive and language measures were administered to 37 preschoolers with language delay to investigate the agreement of the profiles in determining eligibility for language intervention services. Results found a sizable variation in categorization outcomes for the various intelligence quotient/language quotient profiles. The validity of the…

Eighty-five high school students of French were tested orally by an outside evaluator over a 2-month period. Includes several sample tests in a variety of formats as well as the questionnaire administered to students before and after the treatment to measure their attitudes toward French and oral evaluation. (Author/VWL)

Examined effects of item characteristics on cloze text performance. Focus was on the relationship between cloze item characteristics and scoring methods. Item characteristics examined were: content/function words; parts of speech; word frequency; number of occurrences of a word in text; alternative answers; syntactic variation; amount of content;…