Tineke Brunfaut
Biographic Data
| ID | 5998562 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tineke Brunfaut |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tineke |
| FAMILY NAME | Brunfaut |
| SIGNATURE | BRUNFAUT T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lancaster University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8018-8004 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Examining the role of linguistic characteristics of task performance in integrated multimodal viewing-to-write tasks
This study investigates how second language (L2) writers’ textual features vary across multimodal integrated tasks and how these features relate to raters’ evaluations of performance. Reflecting the growing emphasis on multimodality in language use, our research focused on viewing-to-write tasks that combine auditory, visual, and written input. A total of 133 intermediate to advanced L2 English learners completed two task types: (1) viewing-to-de…
What makes item-writing training useful? Learning from trainee perceptions on an online item-writing course for language testing
Despite general recognition that, in human-led item writing, training is key to producing good-quality tests, there is little empirical research on what constitutes good practice in item-writing training for language test development. This has led to a lack of evidence-based guidance for those who (plan to) organise item-writing training. To help address this research gap, this study explored the perceptions of 25 novice item writers on the usefu…
Comparative Judgement for evaluating young learners’ EFL writing performances
Comparative Judgement (CJ) is an evaluation method, typically conducted online, whereby a rank order is constructed, and scores calculated, from judges’ pairwise comparisons of performances. CJ has been researched in various educational contexts, though only rarely in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing settings, and is generally agreed to be a reliable method of evaluating performances. This study extends the CJ research base to young le…
But who trains the language teacher educator who trains the language teacher? An empirical investigation of Chilean EFL teacher educators’ language assessment literacy
Research has shown that language teachers typically feel underprepared for assessment aspects of their job. One reason may relate to how teacher education programmes prepare future teachers in this area. Research insights into how and to what extent teacher educators train future language teachers in language assessment matters are scarce, however, as are insights into the language assessment literacy (LAL) of the teacher educators themselves. Ad…
Future challenges and opportunities in language testing and assessment
In this invited Viewpoint on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the journal Language Testing, I argue that at the core of future challenges and opportunities for the field—both in scholarly and operational respects—remain basic questions and principles in language testing and assessment. Despite the high levels of sophistication of issues looked into, and methodological and operational solutions found, outstanding concerns still amount to: w…
Operationalizing the reading-into-writing construct in analytic rating scales
Assessing integrated reading-into-writing task performances is known to be challenging, and analytic rating scales have been found to better facilitate the scoring of these performances than other common types of rating scales. However, little is known about how specific operationalizations of the reading-into-writing construct in analytic rating scales may affect rating quality, and by extension score inferences and uses. Using two different ana…
Evaluating co-production as a guiding philosophy for EAP teacher training course development
This paper considers the research philosophy of co-production for use in the field of EAP, where it has been little utilised as a guiding principle for research and development projects. The central question to be addressed is the appropriacy of co-production in a specific setting, and the challenges and benefits it brings to the research process. For projects situated in settings that are relatively unfamiliar to professional researchers, co-pro…
Testing young foreign language learners’ reading comprehension
Extensive research has demonstrated the impact of working memory (WM) on first language (L1) reading comprehension across age groups (Peng et al., 2018), and on foreign language (FL) reading comprehension of adults and older adolescents (Linck et al., 2014). Comparatively little is known about the effect of WM on young FL readers’ comprehension, and even less within testing contexts. Young FL readers are still developing their L1 reading skills a…
Is anybody listening? The nature of second language listening in integrated listening-to-summarize tasks
Integrated test tasks, such as listening-to-speak or reading-to-write, are increasingly used in second language assessment despite relatively limited empirical insights into what they assess. Most research on integrated tasks has primarily focused on the productive skills involved; studies exploring the receptive skills mostly investigated tasks with reading input. Little is known about the nature of listening comprehension in integrated listenin…
Investigating the construct measured by banked gap-fill items
This study investigates test-takers’ processing while completing banked gap-fill tasks, designed to test reading proficiency, in order to test theoretically based expectations about the variation in cognitive processes of test-takers across levels of performance. Twenty-eight test-takers’ eye traces on 24 banked gap-fill items (on six tasks) were analysed according to seven online eye-tracking measures representing overall, text and task processi…
Towards a Theory of Diagnosis in Second and Foreign Language Assessment
Diagnostic language assessment has received increased research interest in recent years, with particular attention on methods through which diagnostic information can be gleaned from standardized proficiency tests. However, diagnostic procedures in the broader sense have been inadequately theorized to date, with the result that there is still little agreement on precisely what diagnosis in second and foreign language learning actually entails. In…
Diagnostic assessment of reading and listening in a second or foreign language
Alderson, Brunfaut and Harding (2014) recently investigated how diagnosis is practised across a range of professions in order to develop a tentative framework for a theory of diagnosis in second or foreign language (SFL) assessment. In articulating this framework, a set of five broad principles were proposed, encompassing the entire enterprise of diagnostic assessment. However, there remain questions about how best to implement these principles i…
The Role of Task and Listener Characteristics in Second Language Listening
This study investigated the relationship between second language (L2) listening and a range of task and listener characteristics. More specifically, for a group of 93 nonnative English speakers, the researchers examined the extent to which linguistic complexity of the listening task input and response, and speed and explicitness of the input, were associated with task difficulty. In addition, the study explored the relationship between L2 listeni…
Medical communication in L1 and L2 contexts
Good communicative skills are key to medical professionals; they may even be life saving. Because of a lack of research on migrant doctors (rather than migrant patients) and on pragmatic aspects of doctors' communication with patients (rather than on strictly linguistic aspects), the present study investigated the pragmatic competence of doctors using an L2 in their clinical setting. By means of discourse completion tasks, L1 and L2 doctors in Be…
The Role of Task and Listener Characteristics in Second Language Listening
This study investigated the relationship between second language (L2) listening and a range of task and listener characteristics. More specifically, for a group of 93 nonnative English speakers, the researchers examined the extent to which linguistic complexity of the listening task input and response, and speed and explicitness of the input, were associated with task difficulty. In addition, the study explored the relationship between L2 listeni…
Medical communication in L1 and L2 contexts
Good communicative skills are key to medical professionals; they may even be life saving. Because of a lack of research on migrant doctors (rather than migrant patients) and on pragmatic aspects of doctors' communication with patients (rather than on strictly linguistic aspects), the present study investigated the pragmatic competence of doctors using an L2 in their clinical setting. By means of discourse completion tasks, L1 and L2 doctors in Be…
Towards a Theory of Diagnosis in Second and Foreign Language Assessment
Diagnostic language assessment has received increased research interest in recent years, with particular attention on methods through which diagnostic information can be gleaned from standardized proficiency tests. However, diagnostic procedures in the broader sense have been inadequately theorized to date, with the result that there is still little agreement on precisely what diagnosis in second and foreign language learning actually entails. In…
Diagnostic assessment of reading and listening in a second or foreign language
Alderson, Brunfaut and Harding (2014) recently investigated how diagnosis is practised across a range of professions in order to develop a tentative framework for a theory of diagnosis in second or foreign language (SFL) assessment. In articulating this framework, a set of five broad principles were proposed, encompassing the entire enterprise of diagnostic assessment. However, there remain questions about how best to implement these principles i…
The Role of Task and Listener Characteristics in Second Language Listening
This study investigated the relationship between second language (L2) listening and a range of task and listener characteristics. More specifically, for a group of 93 nonnative English speakers, the researchers examined the extent to which linguistic complexity of the listening task input and response, and speed and explicitness of the input, were associated with task difficulty. In addition, the study explored the relationship between L2 listeni…
Investigating the construct measured by banked gap-fill items
This study investigates test-takers’ processing while completing banked gap-fill tasks, designed to test reading proficiency, in order to test theoretically based expectations about the variation in cognitive processes of test-takers across levels of performance. Twenty-eight test-takers’ eye traces on 24 banked gap-fill items (on six tasks) were analysed according to seven online eye-tracking measures representing overall, text and task processi…
Is anybody listening? The nature of second language listening in integrated listening-to-summarize tasks
Integrated test tasks, such as listening-to-speak or reading-to-write, are increasingly used in second language assessment despite relatively limited empirical insights into what they assess. Most research on integrated tasks has primarily focused on the productive skills involved; studies exploring the receptive skills mostly investigated tasks with reading input. Little is known about the nature of listening comprehension in integrated listenin…
Testing young foreign language learners’ reading comprehension
Extensive research has demonstrated the impact of working memory (WM) on first language (L1) reading comprehension across age groups (Peng et al., 2018), and on foreign language (FL) reading comprehension of adults and older adolescents (Linck et al., 2014). Comparatively little is known about the effect of WM on young FL readers’ comprehension, and even less within testing contexts. Young FL readers are still developing their L1 reading skills a…
Evaluating co-production as a guiding philosophy for EAP teacher training course development
This paper considers the research philosophy of co-production for use in the field of EAP, where it has been little utilised as a guiding principle for research and development projects. The central question to be addressed is the appropriacy of co-production in a specific setting, and the challenges and benefits it brings to the research process. For projects situated in settings that are relatively unfamiliar to professional researchers, co-pro…
But who trains the language teacher educator who trains the language teacher? An empirical investigation of Chilean EFL teacher educators’ language assessment literacy
Research has shown that language teachers typically feel underprepared for assessment aspects of their job. One reason may relate to how teacher education programmes prepare future teachers in this area. Research insights into how and to what extent teacher educators train future language teachers in language assessment matters are scarce, however, as are insights into the language assessment literacy (LAL) of the teacher educators themselves. Ad…
Future challenges and opportunities in language testing and assessment
In this invited Viewpoint on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the journal Language Testing, I argue that at the core of future challenges and opportunities for the field—both in scholarly and operational respects—remain basic questions and principles in language testing and assessment. Despite the high levels of sophistication of issues looked into, and methodological and operational solutions found, outstanding concerns still amount to: w…
Operationalizing the reading-into-writing construct in analytic rating scales
Assessing integrated reading-into-writing task performances is known to be challenging, and analytic rating scales have been found to better facilitate the scoring of these performances than other common types of rating scales. However, little is known about how specific operationalizations of the reading-into-writing construct in analytic rating scales may affect rating quality, and by extension score inferences and uses. Using two different ana…
What makes item-writing training useful? Learning from trainee perceptions on an online item-writing course for language testing
Despite general recognition that, in human-led item writing, training is key to producing good-quality tests, there is little empirical research on what constitutes good practice in item-writing training for language test development. This has led to a lack of evidence-based guidance for those who (plan to) organise item-writing training. To help address this research gap, this study explored the perceptions of 25 novice item writers on the usefu…
Comparative Judgement for evaluating young learners’ EFL writing performances
Comparative Judgement (CJ) is an evaluation method, typically conducted online, whereby a rank order is constructed, and scores calculated, from judges’ pairwise comparisons of performances. CJ has been researched in various educational contexts, though only rarely in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing settings, and is generally agreed to be a reliable method of evaluating performances. This study extends the CJ research base to young le…
Examining the role of linguistic characteristics of task performance in integrated multimodal viewing-to-write tasks
This study investigates how second language (L2) writers’ textual features vary across multimodal integrated tasks and how these features relate to raters’ evaluations of performance. Reflecting the growing emphasis on multimodality in language use, our research focused on viewing-to-write tasks that combine auditory, visual, and written input. A total of 133 intermediate to advanced L2 English learners completed two task types: (1) viewing-to-de…
Psychology (11 works) · Linguistics (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (6 works) · Pedagogy (6 works) · Student Assessment and Feedback (6 works) · Cognitive psychology (5 works) · Second Language Learning and Teaching (5 works) · Language assessment (4 works) · Second Language Acquisition and Learning (4 works)