Language Testing: Theories and Practices (Palgrave Advances in Language and Linguistics)

Aimed at researchers and students interested in language testing theory and practice, the chapters in this book vary in style and content and are both stimulating and robust. The book brings together a fascinating group of authors from the established to the new, presenting new ideas and challenging current orthodoxies.

Reference

O´Sullivan, Barry

Foreign Language Study & Reference

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

Demand is steadily growing for language tests with a specialized focus which will suit the needs of key professional domains as diverse as business, law, the airline industry, and teacher education. This book explores the testing of language for sepcific purposes (LSP) from a theoretical and a practical perspective, with a particular focus on the testing of English for business purposes. A range of tests - both past and present - is reviewed, and the development of business English testing at Cambridge ESOL is discussed. The description of the revision of the Business English Certificates (BEC) forms a major part of the book and offers a unique insight into an approach to large-scale ESP test development and revision.

Issues in Testing Business English: The Revision of the Cambridge Business English Certificates (Studies in Language Testing, Series Number 17)

Cambridge University Press

When we use a language we are always aware of our audience. This awareness is reflected, for example, in changes to the way we speak to the same person in different contexts or to different people in the same context. This book explores the way in which test takers’ language can change in test events depending on either real or perceived similarities or differences between themselves and their interlocutors. The series of five studies reported are designed to explore aspects of test-taker performance on tests of speaking, and in doing so provide evidence in support of a proposed model of speaking test performance. Though the studies focus primarily on the effect on test-taker performance of characteristics associated with their interlocutor, they also provide empirical evidence of interactions between the factors. There are clear implications from the findings for all of those people involved in language testing and in researching spoken language.

Modelling Performance in Tests of Spoken Language (Language Testing and Evaluation)

Words, Language & Grammar

Peter Lang Pub Inc

This collection of original articles provides language teachers with a theoretical background of key issues associated with language testing as well as practical advice on how to improve the effectiveness of the tests they develop and implement. Written by internationally prominent researchers and educators, the chapters are organized into five sections: key issues in the field, assessment purposes and approaches, assessment of second language skills, technology in assessment, and administrative issues. Chapters assume no particular background knowledge and are written in an accessible style.

The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Assessment

Davidson, Peter

Coombe, Christine

Stoynoff, Stephen

The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Assessment (The Cambridge Guides)

In 1939, New Zealand was far less well prepared for war than it had been in 1914. Nevertheless, more than 140,000 New Zealanders - nearly 9 per cent of the dominion's total population - enlisted to fight overseas 'for King and Country' during World War II. Of these, 104,000 served in the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, whose major component became 2nd NZ Infantry Division; by 1944 this was the largest division in the British and Commonwealth armies, with a strength of about 40,000 men in infantry and supporting artillery, armoured, engineer and service units.
Initially thrown into the doomed campaign to halt the German blitzkrieg on Greece and Crete (1941), the division was rebuilt under the leadership of a World War I VC-winner, MajGen Sir Bernard Freyberg, and became the elite corps within Montgomery's Eighth Army in the desert. After playing a vital role in the victory at El Alamein (1942) the 'Kiwis' were the vanguard of the pursuit to Tunisia. In 1943-45 the division was heavily engaged in the Italian mountains, especially at Cassino (1944); it ended the war in Trieste, facing down Tito's advancing communist partisans. Meanwhile, a smaller NZ force - briefly designated 3rd NZ Division - supported US forces against the Japanese in the Solomons and New Guinea (1942-44). 
Fully illustrated with specially commissioned colour plates, this is the story of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force's vital contribution to Allied victory in World War II.

The New Zealand Expeditionary Force in World War II (Men-at-Arms, 486)

History

Stack, Wayne

Australia & Oceania

Osprey_Publishing

Assessing English on the Global Stage: The British Council and English Language Testing, 1941-2016

This book tells the story of the British Council's seventy-five year involvement in the field of English language testing. The first section of the book explores the role of the British Council in spreading British influence around the world through the export of British English language examinations and British expertise in language testing. Founded in 1934, the organisation formally entered the world of English language testing with the signing of an agreement with the University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate (UCLES) in 1941. This agreement, which was to last until 1993, saw the British Council provide substantial English as a Foreign Language (EFL) expertise and technical and financial assistance to help UCLES develop their suite of English language tests. Perhaps the high points of this phase were the British Council inspired Cambridge Diploma of English Studies introduced in the 1940s and the central role played by the British Council in the conceptualisation and development of the highly innovative English Language Testing Service (ELTS) in the 1970s, the precursor to the present day International English Language Testing System (IELTS). British Council support for the development of indigenous national English language tests around the world over the last thirty years further enhanced the promotion of English and the creation of soft power for Britain.
In the early 1990s the focus of the British Council changed from test development to delivery of British examinations through its global network. However, by the early years of the 21st century, the organisation was actively considering a return to test development, a strategy that was realised with the founding of the Assessment Research Group in early 2012. This was followed later that year by the introduction of the Aptis English language testing service; the first major test developed in-house for over thirty years. As well as setting the stage for the re-emergence of professional expertise in language testing within the organisation, these initiatives have resulted in a growing strategic influence for the organisation on assessment in English language education. This influence derives from a commitment to test localisation, the development and provision of flexible, accessible and affordable tests and an efficient delivery, marking and reporting system underpinned by an innovative socio-cognitive approach to language testing. This final period can be seen as a clear return by the British Council to using language testing as a tool for enhancing soft power for Britain: a return to the original raison d'etre of the organisation.

Weir, Cyril J.

University of Toronto Press

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