Language assessment
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Language assessment or language testing is a field of study under the umbrella of
History
The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (August 2008) |
The history of language testing may have originated in the late nineteenth century testing of ESL at Cambridge and Oxford in England,
The English Language Institute at the University of Michigan (Michigan Language Assessment) was established in 1941 and was the first of its kind in the United States. Charles Fries, Director of ELI, and Robert Lado, Director of Testing at ELI, were determined to put foreign language teaching and testing on a "scientific" footing. The first test launched in 1946 was the Lado Test of Aural Comprehension. Approximately 10 years later, a full suite of tests had been assembled: "an English language test battery", which was administered to incoming foreign students at Michigan and other universities and was known as the Michigan English Language Assessment Battery. In 1953, the ELI also developed the ECPE (Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English) exam, under contract to the United States Information Agency, for use abroad.[4] The Michigan Tests continue to support international student and professional mobility and include the Michigan English Test (MET), which is offered worldwide at testing centers and remotely.
TOEFL was launched in 1961 and was designed to assess the English language ability of students applying for admission to U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities. This test, which is used widely around the world, is still in use although it is now only available in the internet-based format (now called the TOEFL iBT[5]).
Many tests from other companies, universities and agencies compete for this market:
Organizations
The International Language Testing Association (ILTA) is one of the many organizations that organizes conferences, workshops, and a public forum for the discussion of important matters. ILTA's major annual conference is the Language Testing Research Colloquium. ILTA's Lifetime Achievement Award winners include: Carol Chapelle (US), Alan Davies (UK), Lyle Bachman (US), Bernard Spolsky (Israel), John Clark (US), Charles Alderson (UK) and Elana Shohamy (Israel).
Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey, the home of the TOEFL, offers an annual outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award in Second or Foreign Language and the
Annual conferences
There are many annual conferences on general or specific topics. Among the most important conferences is ILTA's official conference: the Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC), which has been held every year since 1978. In the last few years, it has been held in different parts of the world: Temecula, California, US (2004); Ottawa, Canada (2005); Melbourne, Australia (2006); Barcelona, Spain (2007); Hangzhou, China (2008), and Denver, Colorado (2009), Cambridge, UK (2010), Ann Arbor, Michigan (2011), Princeton, New Jersey (2012), and Seoul, South Korea (2013).
ALTE's international conferences are held in different cities in Europe: Barcelona, Spain (2002); Berlin, Germany (2005); Cambridge, UK (2008); Krakow, Poland (2011); Paris,France (2014); Bologna, Italy (2017) ) with regional conferences in Perugia, Prague, Budapest, Sofia, and Lisbon. Similarly, there are regional meetings in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. International conference themes have included supporting the European Year of Languages (2001), the impact of multilingualism (2005), the wider social and educational impact of assessment (2008) and the role of language frameworks (2011). Selected conference papers have been published through the
Language assessments in aviation
The aviation personnel is required to be regularly tested on aviation language proficiency. The testing is required on the international basis by ICAO Doc 9835. Within the EASA region, the aviation language assessments are required by Ec 1178/2011, Part FCL, FCL.055.
Endorsements
Each flight crew license is endorsed by the respective endorsement specifying the holder's language proficiency. The level acceptable for the operational use in the aviation is 4 thru 6. The validity of the respective level varies with the region.[6]
Organizations
The organizations authorized to conduct the language assessments on behalf of national aviation authorities are so-called "Language assessment bodies" or "Testing service providers". Each and every Language assessment body is issued with the Certificate of approval with its authorizations. Aero Language[7] and Myflower College[8] are one of several organizations in Europe authorized to conduct the language assessments for pilots and air traffic controllers.
Publications
There are two premier journals in the field: Language Assessment Quarterly (published by
The field has exploded in the last twenty years in terms of textbooks and research publications. The most popular books include: Lyle Bachman's Fundamental considerations in language testing, and Statistical Analyses for Language Assessment, Lyle Bachman and Adrian Palmer's Language Testing in Practice and Language Assessment in Practice,' Glenn Fulcher and Fred Davidson's 'Language Testing and Assessment: An Advanced Resource Book', Charles Alderson's 'Assessing Reading, John Read's Assessing Vocabulary, James Purpura's Assessing Grammar, Gary Buck's Assessing Listening, Sara Weigle's Assessing Writing,' Glenn Fulcher's 'Practical Language Testing' and 'Testing Second Language Speaking'. Edited volumes include: Alister Cumming's Validation in Language Testing, Antony John Kunnan's Validation in Language Assessment, and Fairness in Language Assessment, and the 'Routledge Handbook of Language Testing', edited by Glenn Fulcher and Fred Davidson.
The most popular book series are Michael Milanovic, Cyril Weir, and Lynda Taylor's
Courses
Language assessment or language testing courses are taught as required or elective courses in many graduate and
Universities that have regular courses and programs that focus on language assessment at the PhD level include
Scales
General scales
CEFR | ILR
|
ACTFL
|
NB OPS[9] | CLB
|
PSC PSC[10] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A1 | 0/0+/1 | Novice (Low/Mid/High) | Unrated/0+/1 | 1/2 | A |
A2 | 1+ | Intermediate (Low/Mid/High) | 1+/2 | 3/4 | B |
B1 | 2 | Advanced Low | 2+ | 5/6 | C |
B2 | 2+ | Advanced Mid | 3 | 7/8 | |
C1 | 3/3+ | Advanced High | 3+ | 9/10 | |
C2 | 4 | Superior | 4 | 11/12 | |
4+/5 |
Language-specific scales
Other Test Types
- Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC)
Accepted and trusted by 14,000+ organizations in more than 160 countries, the TOEIC® tests assess your English-language proficiency across all four language skills needed to succeed in the global workplace—listening, reading, speaking and writing. With your TOEIC score, you can: get a fair, accurate evaluation of your ability to communicate in English; show potential employers your full range of communication skills; differentiate yourself from the competition; expand your job opportunities.[11]
See also
References
- ISBN 978-0-387-32875-1.
- ^ http://hrd.apec.org/index.php/Language_Assessment Archived 22 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine APEC Human Resources Development Working Group
- )
- ISBN 978-1-136-68698-6.
- ^ About the TOEFL iBT Test http://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/about/ Retrieved 23 November 2010
- ^ "ICAO and EASA validity period | Aero Language ✈ ICAO English, letecká Angličtina a letecká komunikácia, IFR English". Archived from the original on 2 September 2019.
- ^ Aero Language ✈️ ICAO English online aviation English
- ^ "Test of English for Aviation - ICAO Level 4".
- ^ "Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour / Éducation postsecondaire, Formation et Travail". Gnb.ca. Retrieved 2 May 2013.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Qualification Standards 3 / 3". Tbs-sct.gc.ca. 15 April 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
- ^ The TOEIC Tests (For Test Takers)
External links
- International Language Testing Association
- Language Assessment Quarterly
- European Association for Language Testing and Assessment
- Association of Language Testers of Europe
- Language Testing International
- Language Testing Resources
- Language Testing in Asia
- Studies in Language Testing (SiLT)
- Online language proficiency test ( Level4, Level5, Level6 ) for pilots in english or german