A Modular Approach To Testing English Language Skills

Documents the development of the Cambridge ESOL Certificates in English Language Skills (CELS), a suite of modular examinations first offered in 2002. As a context for how CELS was conceived, developed, constructed, validated and managed, the book traces the history of exams which have influenced CELS. The Royal Society of Arts (RSA), later UCLES (University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate) Communicative Use of English as a Foreign Language examinations (CUEFL) was one such influence, as were the Certificates in Communication Skills in English (CCSE), these exams being a development of the CUEFL. The University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (UODLE) examinations, taken over by UCLES in 1995, were a further influence on CELS. UODLE itself had worked in partnership with the Association of Recognised Language Schools (ARELS) Examinations Trust, the Oxford EFL reading and writing exams for many years offered in tandem with the ARELS Oral English exams.

This book explores the impact of language frameworks on learning, teaching and assessment, viewed from the perspective of policies, procedures and challenges. It brings together a selection of edited papers, based on presentations given at the 4th International Conference of the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) held in Kraków, Poland, in July 2011. The selected papers focus on the conference's core themes as follows: the effect of frameworks on teaching, learning and assessment; the value of frameworks for teachers, learners and language policymakers; the contribution of frameworks towards describing particular languages.

An up-to-date review of the relevant literature on assessing speaking.

This volume establishes how English language constructs were measured in Cambridge English examinations over the period 1913 to 2012. An addition to the Studies in Language Testing series, this volume provides an overview of English language testing over the last century, with coverage of key theoretical and practical aspects of the assessment of reading, listening, writing and speaking skills. It includes examples of the Cambridge English exams, old and new, and is the first volume to describe in a systematic way the different theoretical influences which have shaped the development of the constructs underlying Cambridge English exams in the last 100 years.

Test developers need to provide a clear explication of the language ability constructs that underpin the tests they offer in the public domain; such an explication is essential for supporting claims about the validity - or usefulness - of test scores. This volume describes the theory and practice of Cambridge ESOL's approach to assessing second language writing ability. A comprehensive test validation framework is used to examine the tasks in Cambridge ESOL writing tests from a number of different validity perspectives that reflect the socio-cognitive nature of any assessment event. The authors show how an understanding and analysis of the framework and its components can assist test developers to operationalise their tests more effectively, especially in relation to the key criteria that differentiate one proficiency level from another. The book provides: an up-to-date review of relevant literature on assessing writing, an accessible and systematic description of the different proficiency levels in second language writing, a comprehensive and coherent basis for validating tests of writing. This volume is a rich source of information on all aspects of examining writing ability. As such, it will be of considerable interest to examination boards who wish to validate their own writing tests in a systematic and coherent manner, as well as to academic researchers and students in the field of language assessment more generally. Book jacket.

There has been growing interest in recent years in the influence of tests on teaching and learning - a phenomenon commonly referred to as 'washback'. Despite persistent assertions about its nature and scope, empirical studies investigating test washback are still limited in number, and few of these make use of both qualitative and quantitative methods in washback research. This volume presents a study of how the introduction of the 1996 Hong Kong Certificate of Education in English - a high stakes public examination - impacted on classroom teaching and learning in Hong Kong secondary schools. The washback effect was observed initially at the larger 'macro' level, among different stakeholder groups within the Hong Kong educational context; and also at the more local 'micro' level, in terms of teachers' attitudes, teaching content and classroom interactions. This study: provides a theoretical background to the washback concept, discusses the need for empirical investigation of washback, describes the use of a mixed methodology approach in washback research, offers insights into the role of tests as agents of innovation and change in the classroom and broader educational context. This volume will be of particular relevance to language test developers and researchers interested in the consequential validity of tests; it will also be of interest to teachers, curriculum designers, policymakers and others in education concerned with the interface between language testing and teaching practices/programs. Book jacket.

This volume examines the nature of second language listening proficiency and how it can be assessed. The book highlights the need for test developers to provide a clear explication of the ability constructs which underpin the tests they offer in the public domain. This is increasingly necessary if claims about the validity of test score interpretation and use are to be supported both logically and with empirical evidence. It operationalises a comprehensive test validation framework which adopts a socio-cognitive perspective. The framework embraces six core components, examining and then analysing Cambridge ESOL listening tasks from the following perspectives: Test Taker; Cognitive Validity; Context Validity; Scoring Validity; Criterion-related Validity; and Consequential Validity.

This volume reports research that informs the development of reading and listening assessment in IELTS. This volume brings together a set of eight IELTS-related research studies - four on reading and four on listening - conducted between 2005 and 2010. Findings from these studies provide valuable evidence on the validity, reliability, impact and practicality of the IELTS test; they are also instrumental in highlighting aspects needing attention, and thus directly inform the continuing evolution of the IELTS reading and listening tests. The volume reviews and comments on the specific contribution of each study to the ongoing process of IELTS reading and listening test design and development.