Contemporary Second Language Assessment: Contemporary Applied Linguistics Volume 4: Contemporary Applied Linguistics Jayanti Veronique Banerjee Bloomsbury Academic

Contemporary Second Language Assessment

Contemporary Applied Linguistics Volume 4

Contemporary Second Language Assessment

Contemporary Applied Linguistics Volume 4

Description

Includes chapters on key aspects of second language assessment such as test construct, diagnosis, exam design, and the growing range of public policy, social and ethical issues. Each of the contributors is an expert in their area; some are established names while others are talented newcomers to the field.

The chapters present new research or perspectives on traditional concerns such as test quality; fairness and bias; the testing of different language skills; the needs of different groups of examinees, including English language learners who need to take content tests in English; and the use of language assessments for gate-keeping purposes. The volume demonstrates how language assessment is informed by and engages with neighbouring areas of applied linguistics such as technology and language corpora.

The book represents the best of current practice in second language assessment and, as a one volume reference, will be invaluable to students and researchers looking for material that extends their understanding of the field.

Introduction, Dina Tsagari (University of Cyprus, Cyprus) and Jayanti Banerjee (Cambridge Michigan Language Assessments, USA)
Section I: Key Theoretical Considerations
1. Modelling Communicative Language Ability: Skills and Contexts of Language Use, Lin Gu (Educational Testing Service, USA)
2. Presenting Validity Evidence: The Case of GESE, Elaine Boyd and Cathy Taylor (Trinity College London, UK)
3. A New National Exam: A Case of Washback, Doris Frötscher (Federal Ministry of Education, Austria)
4. Linking to the CEFR: Validation Using a Priori and a Posteriori Evidence, John de Jong (Pearson Engish, The Netherlands) and Ying Zheng (University of Southampton, UK)
Section II: Assessment of Specific Language Aspects
5. Authentic Texts in the Assessment of L2 Listening Ability, Elvis Wagner (Temple University, USA)
6. The Role of Background Factors in the Diagnosis of SFL Reading Ability, Ari Huhta (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), J. Charles Alderson (Lancaster University, UK), Lea Nieminen (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), and Riikka Ullakonoja (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)
7. Understanding Oral Proficiency Task Difficulty: An Activity Theory Perspective, Zhengdong Gan (The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
8. Principled Rubric Adoption and Adaptation: One Multi-method Case Study, Valerie Meier (UC Santa Barbara, USA), Jonathan Trace (University of Hawai'i at Manoa, USA) and Gerriet Janssen (Universidad de los Andes, Columbia)
9. The Social Dimension of Language Assessment: Assessing Pragmatics, Carsten Roever (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Section III: Issues in Second Language Assessment
10. Applications of Corpus Linguistics in Language Assessment, Sarah Cushing Weigle (Georgia State University, USA) and Sarah Goodwin (Michigan State University, USA)
11. Setting Language Standards for International Medical Graduates, Vivien Berry (British Council, UK) and Barry O'Sullivan (British Council, UK)
12. Fairness and Bias in Language Assessment, Norman Verhelst (European Association for Language Testing and Assessment, The Netherlands), Jayanti Banerjee (Cambridge Michigan Language Assessments, USA) and Patrick McLain (Cambridge Michigan Language Assessments, USA)
13. ACCESS for ELLs: Access to the Curriculum, Jennifer Norton (Center for Applied Linguistics, USA) and Carsten Wilmes (University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA)
14. Using Technology in Language Assessment, Haiying Li, Keith T. Shubeck, and Arthur C. Graesser (University of Memphis, USA)
15. Future Prospects and Challenges in Language Assessments, Sauli Takala (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), Gudrun Erickson (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), Neus Figueras (Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain), and Jan-Eric Gustafsson (University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
Index

Product details

Published	Jun 30 2016
Format	Ebook (PDF)
Edition	1st
Extent	288
ISBN	9780567147066
Imprint	Bloomsbury Academic
Series	Contemporary Applied Linguistics
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

This edited book offers a panoramic view of current thinking in second language assessment. The fifteen substantive chapters cover conceptual and operational challenges in assessment design and test development. Assessment professionals, researchers and students alike will find the up-to-the-minute discussions in this volume highly informative.

Constant Leung, Professor of Educational Linguistics, King's College London, UK
Certainly gives the reader a taste of a wide variety of language testing research projects ... Each of the individual chapters would offer useful insights to researchers engaged in similar projects and would offer interesting material for discussion on graduate courses in language assessment.

ELT Journal