A Principled Approach to Language Assessment

A Principled Approach to Language Assessment

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2020-08-19

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 0309675510

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The United States is formally represented around the world by approximately 14,000 Foreign Service officers and other personnel in the U.S. Department of State. Roughly one-third of them are required to be proficient in the local languages of the countries to which they are posted. To achieve this language proficiency for its staff, the State Department's Foreign Service Institute (FSI) provides intensive language instruction and assesses the proficiency of personnel before they are posted to a foreign country. The requirement for language proficiency is established in law and is incorporated in personnel decisions related to job placement, promotion, retention, and pay. A Principled Approach to Language Assessment: Considerations for the U.S. Foreign Service Institute evaluates the different approaches that exist to assess foreign language proficiency that FSI could potentially use. This report considers the key assessment approaches in the research literature that are appropriate for language testing, including, but not limited to, assessments that use task-based or performance-based approaches, adaptive online test administration, and portfolios.


A Principled Approach to Language Assessment

A Principled Approach to Language Assessment

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2020-09-19

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 0309675480

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The United States is formally represented around the world by approximately 14,000 Foreign Service officers and other personnel in the U.S. Department of State. Roughly one-third of them are required to be proficient in the local languages of the countries to which they are posted. To achieve this language proficiency for its staff, the State Department's Foreign Service Institute (FSI) provides intensive language instruction and assesses the proficiency of personnel before they are posted to a foreign country. The requirement for language proficiency is established in law and is incorporated in personnel decisions related to job placement, promotion, retention, and pay. A Principled Approach to Language Assessment: Considerations for the U.S. Foreign Service Institute evaluates the different approaches that exist to assess foreign language proficiency that FSI could potentially use. This report considers the key assessment approaches in the research literature that are appropriate for language testing, including, but not limited to, assessments that use task-based or performance-based approaches, adaptive online test administration, and portfolios.


Language Assessment

Language Assessment

Author: H. Douglas Brown

Publisher: Pearson Education ESL

Published: 2018-03-16

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9780134860220

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices is designed to offer a comprehensive survey of essential principles and tools for second language assessment. Its first and second editions have been successfully used in teacher-training courses, teacher certification curricula, and TESOL master of arts programs. As the third in a trilogy of teacher education textbooks, it is designed to follow H. Douglas Brown's other two books, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (sixth edition, Pearson Education, 2014) and Teaching by Principles(fourth edition, Pearson Education, 2015). References to those two books are made throughout the current book. Language Assessment features uncomplicated prose and a systematic, spiraling organization. Concepts are introduced with practical examples, understandable explanations, and succinct references to supportive research. The research literature on language assessment can be quite complex and assume that readers have technical knowledge and experience in testing. By the end of Language Assessment, however, readers will have gained access to this not-so-frightening field. They will have a working knowledge of a number of useful, fundamental principles of assessment and will have applied those principles to practical classroom contexts. They will also have acquired a storehouse of useful tools for evaluating and designing practical, effective assessment techniques for their classrooms.


The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Language Testing

The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Language Testing

Author: Paula Winke

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-12-27

Total Pages: 543

ISBN-13: 1351034774

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This Handbook, with 45 chapters written by the world’s leading scholars in second language acquisition (SLA) and language testing, dives into the important interface between SLA and language testing: shared ground where researchers seek to measure second language performance to better understand how people learn their second languages. The Handbook also reviews how to best measure and evaluate the second language (L2) learners’ personal characteristics, backgrounds, and learning contexts to better understand their L2 learning trajectories. Taking a transdisciplinary approach to research, the book builds upon recent theorizing and measurement principles from the fields of applied linguistics, cognitive science, psychology, psycholinguistics, psychometrics, educational measurement, and social psychology. The Handbook is divided into six key sections: (1) Assessment concepts for SLA researchers, (2) Building instruments for SLA research, (3) Measuring individual differences, (4) Measuring language development, (5) Testing specific populations, and (6) Measurement principles for SLA researchers.


Reconsidering Science Learning

Reconsidering Science Learning

Author: Patricia Murphy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-12-16

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 1134334982

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This informative book looks at science learning in a wide range of contexts. It is divided into three parts. Part one deals with the arguments put forward for studying science, and includes a discussion on what science learners need to know about the nature of science and how decisions about what forms science curricula are made. Part two includes articles on the processes by which science is learned and part three deals with inclusivity and diversity in science learning and what widening participation means for science education. This is a companion book to Mediating Science Learning through ICT also published by RoutledgeFalmer. Reconsidering Science Learning will be of particular interest to teachers on masters courses in science education and academics with an interest in science education.


Teaching by Principles

Teaching by Principles

Author: H. Douglas Brown

Publisher: Prentice Hall

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

ESL/EFL teachers and trainees will welcome this methodology text, which considers all practical classroom techniques and activities in terms of solid foundation stones of research on second language acquisition. -- Readers develop an overall approach to language teaching from which their classroom practices can emerge. -- The text has user-friendly, readable prose, interactive end-of-chapter exercises for discussion and action, and end-of-chapter recommendations for further reading.


Teaching by Principles

Teaching by Principles

Author: H. Douglas Brown

Publisher: Pearson Education ESL

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 668

ISBN-13: 9780133925852

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Teaching by Principles is a widely acclaimed methodology test used in language teacher education programs around the world. In this fourth edition, Dr. H. Douglas Brown and Dr. Heekyeong Lee offer a comprehensive survey of practical language teaching options firmly anchored in current research on second language acquisition and pedagogy. Features of the Fourth Edition A comprehensive update on current issues, new research findings, and innovative classroom teaching techniques, with additional and reworked chapters to reflect this information A description and analysis of new foundational principles, including: agency, identity, languaculture, communities of practice, embodied cognition, and self-regulation Pre-reading organizers at the beginning of each chapter Frquent statistics and pedagogical "tips" in each chapter Numerous "classroom connections" to stimulate practical applications of concepts and principles End-of-chapter group activities, discussion topics, and suggested additional readings A glossary of technical terminology


Validity Argument in Language Testing

Validity Argument in Language Testing

Author: Carol A. Chapelle

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-01-21

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 110860238X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Language tests play pivotal roles in education, research on learning, and gate-keeping decisions. The central concern for language testing professionals is how to investigate whether or not tests are appropriate for their intended purposes. This book introduces an argument-based validity framework to help with the design of research that investigates the validity of language test interpretation and use. The book presents the principal concepts and technical terms, then shows how they can be implemented successfully in practice through a variety of validation studies. It also demonstrates how argument-based validity intersects with technology in language testing research and highlights the use of validity argument for identifying research questions and interpreting the results of validation research. Use of the framework helps researchers in language testing to communicate clearly and consistently about technical issues with each other and with researchers of other types of tests.


Using Technology in Foreign Language Teaching

Using Technology in Foreign Language Teaching

Author: Rahma Al-Mahrooqi

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2014-10-17

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1443870048

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Language learning is a complex and challenging endeavor. For students to achieve the desired proficiency in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) their institutions need to invest time, effort and huge resources in order to cater for different learning styles. To be cost effective, many language-teaching institutions strive to provide intensive foreign language (FL) instruction to reduce the time period needed to learn the target language. This explains the current interest in combining differe...


Communicative Language Testing

Communicative Language Testing

Author: Cyril J. Weir

Publisher:

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Reflecting the shift which has recently occurred in approaches to languages testing in response to developments in teaching, this book highlights the importance of context, purposiveness and realistic discourse in testing, as in teaching.