英语毕业论文:What Does Language Testing Have to Offer?

Advances in language testing in the past decade have occurred in three areas: (a) the development of a theoretical view that considers language ability to be multicomponential and recognizes the influence of the test method and test taker characteristics on test performance, (b) applications of more sophisticated measurement and statistical tools, and (c) the development of “communicative” language tests that incorporate principles of “communicative” language teaching. After reviewing these advances, this paper describes an interfactional model of language test performance that includes two components, language ability and test method. Language ability consists of language knowledge and metacognitive strategies, whereas test method includes characteristics of the environment, rubric, input, expected response, and relationship between input and expected response. Two aspects of authenticity are derived from this model. The situational authenticity of a given test task depends on the relationship between its test method characteristics and the features of a specific language use situation, while its interfactional authenticity pertains to the degree to which it invokes the test taker’s language ability. The application of this definition of authenticity to test development is discussed. 本文来自

The purpose of this paper is to address a question that is, I believe, implicit in all of the review articles mentioned above, What does language testing have to offer to researchers and practitioners in other areas of applied linguistics, particularly in language learning and language teaching? These reviews discuss several specific areas in which valuable contributions can be expected (e.g., program evaluation, second language acquisition, classroom learning, research methodology). Part 2 of this paper focuses on two recent developments in language testing, discussing their potential contributions to language learning and language teaching. I argue first that a theoretical model of second language ability that has emerged on the basis of research in language testing can be useful for both researchers and practitioners in language learning and language teaching. Specifically, I believe it provides a basis for both conceptualizing second language abilities whose acquisition is the object of considerable research and instructional effort, and for designing language tests for use both in instructional settings and for research in language learning and language teaching. Second, I will describe an approach to characterize the authenticity of a language task which I believe can help us to better understand the nature of the tasks we set, either for students in instructional programs or for subjects in language learning research and which can thus aid in the design and development of tasks that are more useful for these purposes.

PART 1: LANGUAGE TESTING IN THE 1990s 本文来自

One of the major preoccupations of language testers in the past decade has been investigating the nature of language proficiency. In 1980 the “unitary competence hypothesis” (Oller, 1979), which claimed that language proficiency consists of a single, global ability was widely accepted. By 1983 this view of language proficiency had been challenged by several empirical studies and abandoned by its chief proponent (Oller, 1983). The unitary trait view has been replaced, through both empirical research and theorizing, by the view that language proficiency is multicomponential, consisting of a number of interrelated specific abilities as well as a general ability or set of general strategies or procedures. Skehan and Alderson both suggest that the model of language test performance proposed by Bachman (1990b) represents progress in this area, since it includes both components of language ability and characteristics of test methods, thereby making it possible “to make statements about actual performance as well as underlying abil