Articles

A moderated mediation analysis of the relationship between a high-stakes English test and test takers’ extracurricular English learning activities

This study investigated the relationship between a large-scale and high-stakes English test and test takers’ learning behavior. Specifically, it explored whether and how the National Matriculation English Test...

Authors: Jing Zhang

The effect of using online language-support resources on L2 writing performance

Language learners today have access to a much wider choice of resources and language-support tools that aid their writing processes. While research on the convenience and flexibility of the writing resources t...

Authors: Dongkwang Shin, Suh Keong Kwon and Yongsang Lee

Rasch testlet model and bifactor analysis: how do they assess the dimensionality of large-scale Iranian EFL reading comprehension tests?

Rasch testlet and bifactor models are two measurement models that could deal with local item dependency (LID) in assessing the dimensionality of reading comprehension testlets. This study aimed to apply the me...

Authors: Masoud Geramipour

Integrating diagnostic assessment into curriculum: a theoretical framework and teaching practices

Currently, much research on cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) focuses on the development of statistical models estimating individual students’ attribute profiles. However, little is known about how to comm...

Authors: Tingting Fan, Jieqing Song and Zheshu Guan

English language assessment in Bangladesh today: principles, practices, and problems

The achievement of curriculum goals and objectives, to a large extent, depends on how assessment methods are designed, implemented, monitored, and evaluated. English language learning in Bangladesh has miserab...

Authors: Md Shaiful Islam, Md Kamrul Hasan, Shahin Sultana, Abdul Karim and Mohammad Mosiur Rahman

Line, please? An analysis of the rehearsed speech characteristics of native Korean speakers on the English Oral Proficiency Interview—Computer (OPIc)

 Two assumptions of speaking proficiency tests are that the speech produced is spontaneous and the the scores on those tests predict what examinees can do in real-world communicative situations. Therefore, whe...

Authors: Gwyneth Gates, Troy L. Cox, Teresa Reber Bell and William Eggington

Development and validation of a rating scale for Iranian EFL academic writing assessment: a mixed-methods study

The present study reports the process of development and validation of a rating scale in the Iranian EFL academic writing assessment context. To achieve this goal, the study was conducted in three distinct pha...

Authors: Nasim Ghanbari and Hossein Barati

Effects of rating criteria order on the halo effect in L2 writing assessment: a many-facet Rasch measurement analysis

The halo effect is raters’ undesirable tendency to assign more similar ratings across rating criteria than they should. The impacts of the halo effect on ratings have been studied in rater-mediated L2 writing ...

Authors: Hyunwoo Kim

Correction to: Language assessment literacy: what do we need to learn, unlearn, and relearn?

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Christine Coombe, Hossein Vafadar and Hassan Mohebbi

Exploring the validity evidence of a high-stake, second language reading test: an eye-tracking study

The current study aims to explore the cognitive validity of the iBT TOEFL reading test by investigating test takers’ eye movements on individual items. It is assumed that successful test takers would adopt the...

Authors: Hyojung Lim

Correction to: Understanding university English instructors’ assessment training needs in the Chinese context

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Ling Gan and Ricky Lam

Examining consistency among different rubrics for assessing writing

The literature on using scoring rubrics in writing assessment denotes the significance of rubrics as practical and useful means to assess the quality of writing tasks. This study tries to investigate the agree...

Authors: Enayat A. Shabani and Jaleh Panahi

Understanding university English instructors’ assessment training needs in the Chinese context

In the past decade, language assessment training has increasingly become a key research agenda in language testing and assessment, particularly within the Chinese context. Studies have explored the training of...

Authors: Ling Gan and Ricky Lam

The relationship of test takers’ learning motivation, attitudes towards the actual test use and test performance of the College English Test in China

Test takers’ individual characteristics may have a significant impact on their test performance (e.g. Bachman & Palmer, Language assessment in practice: Developing language assessments and justifying their use...

Authors: Ying Bai

An investigation of novice ESL writers’ cognitive processes and strategy use of paraphrasing

Source use competence is becoming increasingly important in English-medium universities, and inability to appropriately use reading sources leads to plagiarism which has serious punishable consequences. As one...

Authors: Emily Di Zhang

Designing and validating a potential assessment inventory for assessing ELTs’ assessment literacy

English teachers' assessment literacy has always been considered as an important factor in their performance. However, no instrument has ever been developed to assess this construct among Iranian EFL teachers....

Authors: Fateme Nikmard and Zohre Mohamadi Zenouzagh

The application of Kunnan’s test fairness framework (TFF) on a reading comprehension test

The present study tries to investigate the fairness of an English reading comprehension test employing Kunnan’s (2004) test fairness framework (TFF) as the most comprehensive model available for test fairness....

Authors: M. Moghadam and F. Nasirzadeh

When testing stakes are no longer high: impact on the Chinese College English learners and their learning

It is now a consensus that high-stakes testing exerts powerful impact in controlling curriculum and pedagogy, and shaping students’ learning. The power of testing is especially strong in contexts where testing...

Authors: Qiuxian Chen, Chenxian Hao and Yangyu Xiao

Discursive conflicts in news media and the suspension of a government-led test of English in Korea

Drawing on critical discourse analysis methodologies, this study examines the discursive conflicts and strategies employed by newspaper media surrounding the National English Ability Test (NEAT) in Korea. NEAT...

Authors: Dongil Shin and Eunhae Cho

Preface: language assessment literacy

Authors: Hassan Mohebbi and Christine Coombe

Language assessment literacy: what do we need to learn, unlearn, and relearn?

Recently, we have witnessed a growing interest in developing teachers’ language assessment literacy. The ever increasing demand for and use of assessment products and data by a more varied group of stakeholder...

Authors: Christine Coombe, Hossein Vafadar and Hassan Mohebbi

Impact of test format on vocabulary test performance of EFL learners: the role of gender

This study aimed to examine the effect of test format on test performance by comparing Multiple Choice (MC) and Constructed Response (CR) vocabulary tests in an EFL setting. Also, this paper investigated the f...

Authors: Ghazal Akhavan Masoumi and Karim Sadeghi

Analyzing rater severity in a freshman composition course using many facet Rasch measurement

This study examined the rater severity of instructors using a multi-trait rubric in a freshman composition course offered in a private university in Kuwait. Use of standardized multi-trait rubrics is a recent ...

Authors: Inan Deniz Erguvan and Beyza Aksu Dunya

Standardized proficiency tests in a campus-wide English curriculum: a washback study

Washback refers to the influence of tests on learning and teaching. To date, a number of studies have revealed that tests affect teaching content, course design, and classroom practices. However, in Asian high...

Authors: Shao-Ting Alan Hung and Heng-Tsung Danny Huang

Writing scale effects on raters: an exploratory study

In writing assessment, finding a valid, reliable, and efficient scale is critical. Appropriate scales, increase rater reliability, and can also save time and money. This exploratory study compared the effects ...

Authors: Heejeong Jeong

SOLO taxonomy as EFL students’ disciplinary literacy evaluation tool in technology-enhanced integrated astronomy course

Whilst the role of disciplinary literacy in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is becoming more prominent, there appears to be little adaptation or allowance made for English as...

Authors: Nadezhda Chubko, Julia E. Morris, David H. McKinnon, Eileen V. Slater and Geoffrey W. Lummis

Assessing peer review pattern and the effect of face-to-face and mobile-mediated modes on students’ academic writing development

This study examines the distribution of peer review in face-to-face and mobile-mediated peer review groups and their effects on students’ revision skills and academic writing development. Seventy-two first-yea...

Authors: Ali Akbar Khomeijani Farahani, Majid Nemati and Mostafa Nazari Montazer

‘Remark or retake’? A study of candidate performance in IELTS and perceptions towards test failure

It is becoming increasingly important for individuals for whom English is a second language to demonstrate their linguistic credentials for academic, work and employment purposes. One option is to undertake In...

Authors: William S. Pearson

Test-takers’ perspectives on a global test of English: questions of fairness, justice and validity

Although language test-takers have been the focus of much theoretical and empirical work in recent years, this work has been mainly concerned with their attitudes to test preparation and test-taking strategies...

Authors: M. Obaidul Hamid, Ian Hardy and Vicente Reyes

An exploration of students’ voices on the English graduation benchmark policy across Northern, Central and Southern Vietnam

Despite the wide implementation of English graduation benchmark policy in Vietnam, students’ voices on this one-size-fits-all policy have still been under-researched and under-represented. The purpose of this ...

Authors: Thinh Ngoc Pham and Lien Thi Phuong Bui

Diagnosing EFL learners’ writing ability: a diagnostic classification modeling analysis

Cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs) have recently received a surge of interest in the field of second language assessment due to their promise for providing fine-grained information about strengths and weakness...

Authors: Farshad Effatpanah, Purya Baghaei and Ali Akbar Boori

Critical review of validation models and practices in language testing: their limitations and future directions for validation research

The purpose of this paper is to critically review the traditional and contemporary validation frameworks—the content, criterion, and construct validations; the evidence-gathering; the socio-cognitive model; th...

Authors: Gwan-Hyeok Im, Dongil Shin and Liying Cheng

Developing a scoring rubric for L2 summary writing: a hybrid approach combining analytic and holistic assessment

In our research project, we have developed a scoring rubric for a second language (L2) summary writing for English as a foreign language (EFL) students in Japanese universities. This study aimed to examine the...

Authors: Hiroyuki Yamanishi, Masumi Ono and Yuko Hijikata

New test-taking patterns and their effect on language test validity

Educators, especially test creators, are concerned with the construct validity of their tests. Blame has generally been attached to test-wiseness strategies as one source of error in measurement. There is litt...

Authors: Abdullah Al Fraidan

Test-taker perception of and test performance on computer-delivered speaking tests: the mediational role of test-taking motivation

Research on the test-taker perception of assessments has been conducted under the assumption that negative test-taker perception may influence test performance by decreasing test-taking motivation. This assump...

Authors: Yujia Zhou and Asako Yoshitomi

English language teaching in Bangladesh today: Issues, outcomes and implications

Given the significance of English in the global world, English language teaching in Bangladesh has become subject to a supreme concern in maintaining economic growth and developing a skilled workforce. In this...

Authors: Mohammad Mosiur Rahman, Md Shaiful Islam, Abdul Karim, Takad Ahmed Chowdhury, Muhammad Mushfiqur Rahman, Prodhan Mahbub Ibna Seraj and Manjet Kaur Mehar Singh

Calibrated Parsing Items Evaluation: a step towards objectifying the translation assessment

The present research paper introduces a translation evaluation method called Calibrated Parsing Items Evaluation (CPIE hereafter). This evaluation method maximizes translators’ performance through identifying ...

Authors: Alireza Akbari and Mohammadtaghi Shahnazari

Assessing the effect of focused direct and focused indirect written corrective feedback on explicit and implicit knowledge of language learners

This study investigates the effect of teacher’s written corrective feedback (WCF) on acquisition of explicit and implicit knowledge of simple past tense by language learners. Eighty-seven Iranian beginner lear...

Authors: Majid Nemati, Sayyed Mohammad Alavi and Hassan Mohebbi

Test format effects: a componential approach to second language reading

This study aims to empirically answer the question of whether the role of sub-reading skills changes depending on the test format (e.g., multiple-choice vs. open-ended reading questions). The test format effec...

Authors: Hyojung Lim

Analyzing media discourse on the development of the National English Ability Test (NEAT) in South Korea

The purpose of this study is to analyze newspaper articles from three publications (Chosun Ilbo, Donga Ilbo, and JoongAng Ilbo) regarding a newly developed high-stakes English test in South Korea, the National En...

Authors: Dongil Shin

Rater attitude towards emerging varieties of English: a new rater effect?

A strong interest in researching World Englishes (WE) in relation to language assessment has become an emerging theme in language assessment studies over the past two decades. While research on WE has highligh...

Authors: Tammy Huei-Lien Hsu

EFL teacher burnout and self-assessed language proficiency: exploring possible relationships

Although teacher burnout has drawn the attention of many researchers, there is little empirical evidence for the contribution of non-native English language teachers’ language proficiency level to their experi...

Authors: Akram Nayernia and Zareh Babayan

The language assessment literacy needs of Iranian EFL teachers with a focus on reformed assessment policies

Teachers’ assessment literacy has recently captured the attention of scholars across various educational contexts. The literature has it that there is a gap between teachers’ assessment practices and national ...

Authors: Tahereh Firoozi, Kioumars Razavipour and Alireza Ahmadi

Language assessment literacy: an uncharted area for the English language teachers in Bangladesh

Language assessment literacy (LAL) is a critical field for researchers, scholars, or anyone interested in improving the language teaching environment. Understanding the basics of testing and the ability to per...

Authors: Nasreen Sultana

Editorial: Language Testing in Asia has been accepted in SCOPUS

Authors: Robert Kirkpatrick

Toward measuring language teachers’ assessment knowledge: development and validation of Language Assessment Knowledge Scale (LAKS)

This study reports on the development and validation of Language Assessment Knowledge Scale, LAKS, which aims to measure teachers’ language assessment knowledge. The initial development of the scale included a...

Authors: Elçin Ölmezer-Öztürk and Belgin Aydin

Post hoc evaluation of analytic rating scales for improved functioning in the assessment of interactive L2 speaking ability

This study was designed to determine how well existing analytic rating scales functioned in the assessment of low- to mid-proficiency Japanese university students’ interactive English speaking ability when eng...

Authors: Kurtis McDonald

Behind a spoken performance: test takers’ strategic reactions in a simulated part 3 of the IELTS speaking test

Making inferences about a test taker’s language ability has been a concern for language testers. Defining language ability in a speaking test is made difficult because the construct involves factors within and...

Authors: Christina Judy Fernandez

Correction to: Validity of the listening module of international English language testing system: multiple sources of evidence

After publication of this article (Alavi et al. 2018), it is noticed the third author’s affiliation is incorrect.

Authors: Sayyed Mohammad Alavi, Shiva Kaivanpanah and Ali Panahi Masjedlou

Evaluating CEFR rater performance through the analysis of spoken learner corpora

Although teachers of English are required to assess students’ speaking proficiency in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), their ability to rate is seldom evaluated. The application...

Authors: Lan-fen Huang, Simon Kubelec, Nicole Keng and Lung-hsun Hsu