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- by
- •
- Sociolinguistics, Applied Linguistics, English Language Testing

There are several student performances assessed in Intensive English Programs (IEPs) worldwide in each academic year. These student performances are mostly graded by human raters with a certain degree of error. However, the accuracy of these performance assessments is of utmost importance because they feed data into some high stakes decisions about the students and such performance assessments constitute a large number of students' scores. Therefore, the accuracy of these performance assessments should be given priority by the IEPs. However, the current rater performance monitoring systems which can help the administrators of IEPs to monitor rater performance in performance assessment are away from practicality because they require the use of complex mathematical models and specialized software. A practical and easy to maintain rater performance categorization system is proposed in this paper and it was accompanied by a sample study. Its benefits to the administrators of IEPs and their raters are also discussed besides its practical considerations.

This chapter focuses on an important and often neglected component of ELT, which is testing and assessment. In the Philippines, there is a dearth of substantial research on the topic. While most studies about English language testing are concerned with the psychometric dimensions of tests, very few, if any, investigate test bias and fairness. Throughout history, tests have been used to control human behavior. Language tests have been and continue to be used for gatekeeping purposes. To what extent are these test practices fair to test-takers? To what extent are test instruments inclusive of all speakers of the English language? Are English language tests biased against so-called ‘non-native’ users of the language? This chapter looks at the social dimension of English language testing. Using the Philippines as context, the chapter raises some concerns about bias and fairness in testing policies and practices in the country.

This pilot study explores whether and to what extent IELTS Academic Reading test-takers utilise expeditious reading strategies, and, where employed, their impact on test outcomes. In a partial replication of Weir, Hawkey, Green, and Devi's (2009) exploration of the reading processes learners engage in when tackling IELTS Reading tasks, participants in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses underwent a mock IELTS Academic Reading test. They then completed a written retrospective protocol and a focus group discussion to probe their reading strategy use and tease out any underlying rationale. The analysis revealed that participants responded to time pressure, unfamiliar vocabulary and demands on working memory by employing a range of expeditious reading strategies which focused less on textual comprehension than on quickly locating correct answers. Their comprehension of texts often remained at the 'local-literal' level rather than the 'global-interpretive' level (Moore, Morton, & Price, 2012). Their test scores did not necessarily increase as a result. The findings, though preliminary, support further enquiry into test-taking strategies to understand the extent and the direction of impact on test scores.

- by James Chalmers and +1
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- IELTS, English Language Testing, IELTS Writing and Reading
- by Servet Celik and +1
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- Teaching English as a Second Language, Language Testing, TESOL, Teaching English As A Foreign Language
- by Elisabete Gomes
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- English Language Testing

Different voices across the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) have continually expressed concerns about the poor performance of students at the institution on English Language courses. In this study, we examine the extent of students' poor performance in relation to the Proficiency Test in English (PTE) administered to entrants to the institution. The report is in the form of a statistical analysis, and uses test data from June/July 2009, 2010 and 2011. The results of the study confirm what has already been suggested by lecturers within English Language and Linguistics Division and other faculties that students have significant challenges in their use of English. The findings show that a large number of students who sit the test fail, and many of those who pass do so with a low grade. The data also reveals that students registered to some faculties consistently perform marginally better than others. Additionally, for most students tested mastery of all the English language skills tested (essay, technical writing, reading comprehension and grammar) was very weak, with less than 2% of the students demonstrating mastery on all of the skills. These results undoubt edly raise some critical questions and confirm that the language 'problem' is a university- wide one that is in need of an equally comprehensive solution. The paper suggests that if mastery of the English language skills tested is important to students' success in their fields of study upon graduating, then the University will need to employ immediate measures to ensure that students achieve the required competence.

- by Daidrah T . Telfer and +1
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- English language, English Proficiency, English Language Testing

An A to Z of Second Language Assessment is an essential component of the British Council’s Assessment Literacy Project and is designed for EFL/ESL teachers and those who are involved in pre-service or in-service teacher training and development. This resource, available in two formats, can be accessed online or as a downloadable PDF file. It can be used as part of a course or as a reference for those teachers who want to increase their knowledge of language testing and assessment.
Learning the terminology and jargon of the field of language assessment also means understanding the concepts represented by these terms and understanding how they are interlinked and interrelated. Written by teachers for teachers, these 285 terms and their respective definitions represent the collective knowledge of 81 teachers from 27 countries worldwide. We have made every effort to include definitions that are readable and easy to understand, even for teachers with little or no assessment background. It is hoped that this resource will be an important one in your ongoing journey to assessment literacy.

This book is the product of awarded research grant from DIKTI (Direktorat Jenderal Pendidikan Tinggi) in 2013. This book is developed when the writer teaches Grammar 5 in English Education Department at STKIP PGRI Blitar. This book contains the theory, practices, and evaluation on clausal mastery in TOEFL preparation. Hopefully, it can be used wisely.

- by Sumardiono Dion
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- Research Design, Structure, English Grammar, Relative Clauses

This paper examines Australia's immigration policy context as at early 2015. Prior to 2016 Australia enforced a mandatory English language test on skilled migrants. Virtually all skilled migrants were required to take the IELTS test, with... more

- by The Free School
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- Sociology of Education, Hidden Curriculum, IELTS, English Language Testing

Throughout history, tests have been used as powerful tools to change people’s lives; they open up certain options and to close off others (Spolsky, 1997) and evidence of this can be seen when we consider the consequences that tests have. For example, a language test may decide if you are able to work in a country, or able to move on to the next level of education. Test takers often have bad memories of their testing experiences and the thought of a test can cause anxiety and stress for many. However, the consequences do not stop at the test taker, tests have an effect on all stakeholders involved, and even the society as a whole can be impacted by tests.

English Lesson MID term 1st semester, FIRST year KURITILAS class

- by Pamela Humphreys and +2
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- English for Academic Purposes, Higher Education, Teaching International Students, International Students

The active testing we are talking about here has nothing to do with software or technology. It is a mere thought about developing friendly assessing techniques connected to language learning evaluation. I am confident creative and innovative teachers are able to improve, enrich the experience and render these active testing techniques feasible and more practical with time.

- by mutiah adzra
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- English language, English Education, English Language Testing

This paper reports on a study exploring variation and change in language proficiency amongst international undergraduate students who had been identified as requiring English language support. Specifically, it investigates changes in IELTS scores and in students' perceptions of language proficiency in their first semester of study. The study employed a concurrent mixed methods design in which quantitative and qualitative data were collected simultaneously and analysed separately before comparing results. Quantitative data was collected using an IELTS Academic test at the beginning and end of one semester, while qualitative data comprised two rounds of focus group interviews conducted in the same semester. Fifty-one participants undertook both IELTS tests. The initial round of focus groups was attended by 10 participants and the final round by 15. This study found that the main improvement in proficiency as measured by IELTS was in Speaking. All four sub-scores of the Speaking test showed statistically significant gains: Fluency and Coherence and Pronunciation showed gains of almost half an IELTS band score and these were found to be highly statistically significant. There was little shift in Writing scores except in the sub-score of Lexical Resource and only marginal mean score gains in Listening and Reading. The study distinguished between low-scorers, mid-scorers and high-scorers. The low-scorers obtained significantly higher scores after one semester of study, perhaps reflecting the more rapid progress often made at lower levels of language proficiency, while the mean improvement amongst mid-scorers and high-scorers was not found to be statistically significant. In investigating the relationship between IELTS scores and GPA, Listening and Reading were found to be strongly correlated with GPA in the first semester of study, while Speaking and Writing were not. Further investigation of correlation between their IELTS scores and GPAs found that this strong correlation between GPA and Listening and Reading was maintained in their second semester of study but not in their third semester. This finding points to a relationship between language proficiency test scores and academic achievement for students in their initial year of study, but primarily with the receptive macro-skills, which may have implications for setting entry requirements if borne out by larger studies. Focus group data suggested that students did not have unrealistic expectations of academic study, even if their perceptions of their English proficiency did not always match their actual IELTS levels. Students were able to articulate a range of strategies they had developed to raise proficiency while at university, as well as a range of obstacles that hindered language development. A key finding in comparing the focus group data with the IELTS scores was that proficiency is a complex and contested notion.

- by Pamela Humphreys and +1
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- English for Academic Purposes, Teaching International Students, International Students, English Language Proficiency

WordEngine is a premium vocabulary study application that teaches fast recall ability for 99 percent of all vocabulary words occurring in the English language. WordEngine adjusts to the lexical ability of each learner and is suitable for English language learners ages 10 and up. Fast recall ability for the most frequently occurring words allows the brain's working memory capacity to remain focused on overall meanings rather than unknown words. There is a dedicated LMS that allows teachers to set self-study goals, monitor student progress, download vocabulary tests for use in class, and join teams of students to international vocabulary tournaments. WordEngine is professional solution for professional educators seeking measurably higher academic achievement and outcomes. WordEngine is informed by research in TESOL, educational psychology, and practical linguistics.

In Saudi higher education, assessment has shifted to incorporate intended learning outcomes rather than merely textbook content. Subsequently, faculty members unwillingly participate in high-stakes competitive and harmonized assessment in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses during the preparatory year (PY). These challenges emphasize the importance of need-based training for faculty members. Accordingly, this context-specific study scrutinized faculty members' needs as well as the impact of a training program on engaging the participants and on fostering language assessment skills (LASs) among them. In so doing, an action research design used pre-and post-questionnaires and included a training portfolio to collect data from 31 faculty members. The study first identified those needs as instructional skills, design skills, and educational measurement skills. In the context of professional development, the researchers designed a training program based on those reported need...

- by mohd nazim
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- Language Education, Language Assessment, English Language Testing

To date, very few studies could be found on English language testing and assessment in Vietnam as well as on lexical profiles and lexical coverage of language tests even though such studies could provide useful information for involved stakeholders. This study was conducted to analyse 20 English papers for university entrance exams in Vietnam over 17 years (2002-2018), which were also the national high school graduation exams between 2015 and 2018, to shed light on their lexical demands and their coverage of the General Service List (West, 1953) and the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000). A corpus of those exam papers was created and analysed using the RANGE program (Nation & Heatley, 2002). The results showed that on average 5,000 word families provided 95% coverage of all the exams. The vocabulary families required to comprehend 95% of each exam paper ranged from 3,000 up to 12,000 while those needed for the exams between 2015 and 2018 was 6,000. In addition, the GSL accounted for 85.87% of the exams while the AWL covered 5.06% of the exams. In each exam paper, the coverage of GSL ranged from 80.78% to 89.45% while that of the AWL from 1.74% to 7.79%. Together with Vu and Nguyen's (2019) study that revealed the majority of Vietnamese 12 graders, the target students of these exams, failed to master any levels of vocabulary knowledge, this study calls for more attention to vocabulary in English language learning, teaching and testing in Vietnam.

Different voices across the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) have continually expressed concerns about the poor performance of students at the institution on English Language courses. In this study, we examine the extent of students' poor performance in relation to the Proficiency Test in English (PTE) administered to entrants to the institution. e report is in the form of a statistical analysis, and uses test data from June/July 2009, 2010 and 2011. e results of the study confirm what has already been suggested by lecturers within English Language and Linguistics Division and other faculties that students have significant challenges in their use of English. e findings show that a large number of students who sit the test fail, and many of those who pass do so with a low grade. e data also reveals that students registered to some faculties consistently perform marginally better than others. Additionally, for most students tested mastery of all the English language skills tested (essay, technical writing, reading comprehension and grammar) was very weak, with less than 2% of the students demonstrating mastery on all of the skills. ese results undoubtedly raise some critical questions and confirm that the language 'problem' is a university wide one that is in need of an equally comprehensive solution. e paper suggests that if mastery of the English language skills tested is important to students' success in their fields of study upon graduating, then the University will need to employ immediate measures to ensure that students achieve the required competence.

- by Daidrah T . Telfer and +2
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- English language, English Language Testing

مناسب برای آمادگی زبان انگلیسی عمومی در کنکور سراسری- فوق لیسانس و دکترا
TOEFL PBT- MSRT- MCHE- EPT آزمونهای

There are several student performances assessed in Intensive English Programs (IEPs) worldwide in each academic year. These student performances are mostly graded by human raters with a certain degree of error. However, the accuracy of these performance assessments is of utmost importance because they feed data into some high stakes decisions about the students and such performance assessments constitute a large number of students’ scores. Therefore, the accuracy of these performance assessments should be given priority by the IEPs. However, the current rater performance monitoring systems which can help the administrators of IEPs to monitor rater performance in performance assessment are away from practicality because they require the use of complex mathematical models and specialized software. A practical and easy to maintain rater performance categorization system is proposed in this paper and it was accompanied by a sample study. Its benefits to the administrators of IEPs and th...

- by Alper Sahin
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- Computer Science, Education, Language Testing, Performance Assessment
- by Huseyin Uysal
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- Immigration Studies, Bilingual Education, Immigrant children, Rural education

Decree of Dean of Universitas Gadjah Mada Vocational School no. 10/UN1.SV/SK/2017 regarding graduation requirements for Universitas Gadjah Mada Vocational School students requires a minimum TEVocS score of 60 as one of the graduation requirements. This requirement burdens students, especially the ones other than English Language study program. To be able to graduate, a number of students even had to repeat their TEVocS until they get the required score. This study aims to identify the factors causing the difficulties of UGM Vocational School Korean Language study program students in answering TEVocS questions.This research used quantitative and qualitative approaches. A total of 44 Korean Language study program students became the objects of this study. Students were asked to complete TEVocS simulation and evaluate their performance, specifically related to the factors that caused them feel difficult in answering TEVocS questions. The evaluation was done using questionnaire. The fin...

- by Alfelia Nugky P
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- Speaking, Listening, English Proficiency, English Language Testing

The paper records and analyses English language testing with francophone learners in both university Institutes of fine arts in Cameroon. It brings out its witnesses, the major one being the lack of a curriculum. It submits that testing... more

This paper reports on a study of test anxiety in regards to high-stakes tests of English proficiency. The study was carried out among undergraduates at a Mexican university who were sitting either a TOEFL or a TOEIC test. The study used mixed methods to understand both the concept of test anxiety and its consequences on sufferers. 95 students answered a test-anxiety questionnaire which was analysed and determined to be valid. The physiological aspects of test anxiety were shown to be the most important, though few of the respondents showed high test anxiety. Seven students were selected for in-depth interviews. Only one of these was deemed to suffer from test anxiety, as evidenced by responses on the questionnaire and in the interviews. Test anxiety does not seem to be widespread in this particular context, but for its few sufferers, the consequences can be devastating.

- by Dixie Santana and +1
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- English Language Testing

NUR' ISLAMIYAH UMAR. 2020. A Proposal of English Education Department. An analysis of the validity of English test made by the teacher in SMP Negeri 1 Bontomarannu. Supervised Erwin Akib and Muhammad Asrianto Setiadi. This research aims to determine whether the English test made by the teacher is valid or not. The research method that will be used in this research is descriptive qualitative method. The subject of this research is an English teacher in SMP Negeri 1 Bontomarannu where the research will take one English teacher who teaches in seventh grade. The research will collect data using observations and interviews with the teacher and analysis the data using the analysis model there are: data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing.

- by 105351103417 Nur Islamiyah Umar
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- Validity, English Language Testing

Decree of Dean of Universitas Gadjah Mada Vocational School no. 10/UN1.SV/SK/2017 regarding graduation requirements for Universitas Gadjah Mada Vocational School students requires a minimum TEVocS score of 60 as one of the graduation requirements. This requirement burdens students, especially the ones other than English Language study program. To be able to graduate, a number of students even had to repeat their TEVocS until they get the required score. This study aims to identify the factors causing the difficulties of UGM Vocational School Korean Language study program students in answering TEVocS questions. This research used quantitative and qualitative approaches. A total of 44 Korean Language study program students became the objects of this study. Students were asked to complete TEVocS simulation and evaluate their performance, specifically related to the factors that caused them feel difficult in answering TEVocS questions. The evaluation was done using questionnaire. The finding shows that, in general, almost all Korean Language study program students found it difficult to answer TEVocS questions. Almost all Korean Language study program students admitted that they had difficulties in both listening and speaking sections of TEVocS. These difficulties were caused by a number of factors.

- by Alfelia Nugky Permatasari and +1
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- Speaking, Listening, English Proficiency, English Language Testing
- by Julia Nagai
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- Languages and Linguistics, Expertise, Sociolinguistics, Linguistic Anthropology

In Saudi higher education, assessment has shifted to incorporate intended learning outcomes rather than merely textbook content. Subsequently, faculty members unwillingly participate in high-stakes competitive and harmonized assessment in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses during the preparatory year (PY). These challenges emphasize the importance of needbased training for faculty members. Accordingly, this context-specific study scrutinized faculty members’ needs as well as the impact of a training program on engaging the participants and on fostering language assessment skills (LASs) among them. In so doing, an action research design used preand post-questionnaires and included a training portfolio to collect data from 31 faculty members. The study first identified those needs as instructional skills, design skills, and educational measurement skills. In the context of professional development, the researchers designed a training program based on those reported needs. Dur...

- by Abduljalil Hazaea
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- Language Education, Language Assessment, English Language Testing

With the rapid development of globalization, English becomes a de facto standard for communication. College English Test Band 4(CET-4) in China becomes a necessary process for undergraduates, and every college endeavors to improve CET-4 pass rates for students. Therefore, we developed and built a novel approach for improving pass rates with Gaussian variance and Steed variance. The results show that students are classified in either normal or abnormal categories according to the Pearson correlation coefficient. Thus, college administration can easily focus on the students with the greatest potential and improve their CET-4 performance for the future. Our research reveals that improving CET-4 pass rate for the future is a valuable avenue for education and will inspire more practice and research.

- by Jun S. Huang
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- English Language Testing, Pearson Correlation

- by Rowan Michael and +2
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- English for Academic Purposes, Teaching International Students, International Students, English Language Proficiency