J Charles Alderson
Biographic Data
| ID | 732744 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J Charles Alderson |
| GIVEN NAMES | J Charles |
| FAMILY NAME | Alderson |
| SIGNATURE | ALDERSON J C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lancaster University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 23 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1979 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Towards a Theory of Diagnosis in Second and Foreign Language Assessment: Insights from Professional Practice Across Diverse Fields
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: Elaborating on diagnostic principles
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 metalinguistic knowledge of undergraduate students of English language or linguistics
It is often asserted that UK school-leavers know less grammatical terminology than in earlier years. However, objective data on this supposed phenomenon are somewhat scarce. The study reported in this paper aimed to see whether and to what extent knowledge about language (KaL) has declined over three decades, and how this might relate to university studies and the English school-leaving examinations known as A-level. We analysed data collected in…
Re-examining the content validation of a grammar test: The (im)possibility of distinguishing vocabulary and structural knowledge
“Vocabulary and structural knowledge” (Grabe, 1991, p. 379) appears to be a key component of reading ability. However, is this component to be taken as a unitary one or is structural knowledge a separate factor that can therefore also be tested in isolation in, say, a test of syntax? If syntax can be singled out (e.g. in order to investigate its contribution to reading ability), this test of syntactic knowledge would require validation. The usefu…
A survey of aviation English tests
The Lancaster Language Testing Research Group was commissioned in 2006 by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) to conduct a validation study of the development of a test called ELPAC (English Language Proficiency for Aeronautical Communication), intended to assess the language proficiency of air traffic controllers. As part of that study, Internet searches for other tests of air traffic control identified a num…
Test review: Test of English as a Foreign LanguageTM: Internet-based Test (Toefl iBT®)
Judging the Frequency of English Words
Given the lack of empirical corpus-based frequency counts in many languages, it would be useful and of theoretical interest if judgements of relative frequency of words in a language by proficient speakers of that language could substitute objective frequency counts for the purposes of devising language teaching materials, tests, and research instruments. The present paper reports on three investigations of frequency judgements. Using different m…
The development of a suite of computer-based diagnostic tests based on the Common European Framework
DIALANG is an on-line language assessment system, which contains tests in 14 European languages and is based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). It is the first major testing system that is oriented towards diagnosing language skills and providing feedback to users rather than certifying their proficiency. This article describes the contents of Version 1 of DIALANG and the way in which the system works. This is followed by an ac…
Language testing and assessment (Part 2)
In Part 1 of this two-part review article (Alderson & Banerjee, 2001), we first addressed issues of washback, ethics, politics and standards. After a discussion of trends in testing on a national level and in testing for specific purposes, we surveyed developments in computer-based testing and then finally examined self-assessment, alternative assessment and the assessment of young learners. In this second part, we begin by discussing recent theo…
Language testing and assessment (Part I)
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Assessing Reading
This book is the most comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of the assessment of reading in a foreign or second language.
Sequencing as an item type
A text’s coherence clearly depends upon the way ideas are related within that text, both in terms of their logical relations, as well as the cohesive devices that show, or create, the links between ideas, across paragraphs and sentences. Thus, it would appear that part of the ability of a competent reader is to recognize the appropriate order of ideas in text, to identify cohesion and coherence in text in order to relate the ideas to each other, …
Technology in testing: The present and the future
Toefl preparation courses: A study of washback
'Washback' (sometimes also known as 'backwash') is the influence that writers on language testing, syllabus design and language teaching believe a test will have on the teaching that precedes it. Much has been written about the influence of testing on teaching. To date, however, little empirical evidence is available to support the assertions of either positive or negative washback. The English proficiency test TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign…
Resources in Language Testing and Assessment
The TESOL Quarterlywelcomes evaluative reviews of publications relevant to TESOL professionals. In addition to textbooks and reference materials, these include computer and video software, testing instruments, and other forms of nonprint materials. Language Test Construction and Evaluation Assessing Language Ability in the Classroom (2nd ed.). Measured Words
Responses and replies
Assessing Student Performance in the ESL Classroom
Evaluating a placement test
The nature and validation of placement tests is rarely discussed in the language testing literature, yet placement tests are probably one of the commonest forms of tests used within institutions which are not designed by individual teachers and which are used to make decisions across the institution rather than within individual classes. Questions to be asked in the validation and evaluation of any placement test include the following: Does the p…
Does Washback Exist?
The notion of ‘washback’ is common in the language teaching and testing literature, and tests are held to be powerful determiners of what happens in classrooms. Claims are made for both negative and positive washback, and some writers go so far as to claim that a test's validity should be measured by the degree to which it has a beneficial effect on teaching. However, very little evidence has been presented to support the argument that tests infl…
Standards in testing: A study of the practice of UK examination boards in EFL/ESL testing
It is often asserted that the UK tradition in language testing is different from the North American tradition. Whereas in North America it is considered normal practice to examine the psychometric properties of tests, in the UK more emphasis is thought to be placed on test content. However, there has been no systematic study of this stereotypical view. The research reported in this article aimed to investigate the issue by examining the practices…
Examining washback: The Sri Lankan Impact Study
Language tests are frequently criticized for having negative impact on teaching — so-called 'negative washback'. Some writers believe that it is possible to bring about positive change in language teaching by changing tests. However, neither positive nor negative washback on classrooms has been established empirically by observation of classrooms. This article seeks to redress this situation by reporting on an innovative study of the impact of a …
Evaluating Second Language Education
Applied Linguistics and Language Testing: A Case Study of the ELTS Test
Since language tests inevitably embody a view of language and indirectly a notion of language learning, it is important that designers of tests should take account of generally accepted views of the nature of language, language proficiency, and language use.When the ELTS Revision Project was initiated in 1986, it was felt important that the test should move away from an 'outdated model' to reflect current thinking in applied linguistics, and one …
Response to Madsen's review of Innovation in language testing: Can the microcomputer help
New procedures for validating proficiency tests of ESP? Theory and practice
This paper reports on work in progress on an international project to revise the English Language Testing Service (ELTS) test, currently jointly produced and administered by the British Council and the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. The project is trying out what it believes are somewhat new approaches to the content validation of the revised test, and both the rationale for this and the details of the procedures for test v…
The Cloze Procedure and Proficiency in English as a Foreign Language
The cloze test has received considerable attention in recent years from testers and teachers of English as a foreign language, and is becoming more widely used in language tests, both in the classroom and in standardized tests. However, most of the research has been carried out with native speakers of English and the results do not produce clear-cut evidence that the cloze test is a valid test of reading comprehension. The article reports on a se…
Native and Nonnative Speaker Performance on Cloze Tests 1
A frequent assumption of proficiency tests for nonnative speakers of a language is that they measure something that native speakers are able to do uniformly well. The cloze procedure is increasingly used to construct proficiency tests for administration to nonnative speakers of English. However, little evidence is available on the question of whether cloze tests are capable of making fine distinctions between native and nonnative speakers. The pa…
Language testing and assessment (Part I)
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Language testing and assessment (Part 2)
In Part 1 of this two-part review article (Alderson & Banerjee, 2001), we first addressed issues of washback, ethics, politics and standards. After a discussion of trends in testing on a national level and in testing for specific purposes, we surveyed developments in computer-based testing and then finally examined self-assessment, alternative assessment and the assessment of young learners. In this second part, we begin by discussing recent theo…
Technology in testing: The present and the future
Assessing Student Performance in the ESL Classroom
The Cloze Procedure and Proficiency in English as a Foreign Language
The cloze test has received considerable attention in recent years from testers and teachers of English as a foreign language, and is becoming more widely used in language tests, both in the classroom and in standardized tests. However, most of the research has been carried out with native speakers of English and the results do not produce clear-cut evidence that the cloze test is a valid test of reading comprehension. The article reports on a se…
Native and Nonnative Speaker Performance on Cloze Tests 1
A frequent assumption of proficiency tests for nonnative speakers of a language is that they measure something that native speakers are able to do uniformly well. The cloze procedure is increasingly used to construct proficiency tests for administration to nonnative speakers of English. However, little evidence is available on the question of whether cloze tests are capable of making fine distinctions between native and nonnative speakers. The pa…
Reading in a foreign language
The effect of students' academic discipline on their performance on ESP reading tests
This paper briefly reviews two earlier studies of the effect of student background knowledge on reading comprehension, then goes on to report a third study into the same effect. The paper draws the conclusion that the test results obtained in the study can be accounted for in terms of an interaction between background knowledge and linguistic proficiency. The paper closes with some observations on the broad concepts 'linguistic proficiency' and '…
Police and Public Order
Does economic deterioration in a developed country such as Great Britain inevitably mean increasing disorder and lawlessness? How would the forces of law and order react to authoritarian governments of the political left and right? These two questions and the likely answers form the first part of this essay. The Royal Commission on the Police (1962) faced the question of either retaining a police system based on local government or recommending i…
New procedures for validating proficiency tests of ESP? Theory and practice
This paper reports on work in progress on an international project to revise the English Language Testing Service (ELTS) test, currently jointly produced and administered by the British Council and the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. The project is trying out what it believes are somewhat new approaches to the content validation of the revised test, and both the rationale for this and the details of the procedures for test v…
Response to Madsen's review of Innovation in language testing: Can the microcomputer help
Applied Linguistics and Language Testing: A Case Study of the ELTS Test
Since language tests inevitably embody a view of language and indirectly a notion of language learning, it is important that designers of tests should take account of generally accepted views of the nature of language, language proficiency, and language use.When the ELTS Revision Project was initiated in 1986, it was felt important that the test should move away from an 'outdated model' to reflect current thinking in applied linguistics, and one …
Does Washback Exist?
The notion of ‘washback’ is common in the language teaching and testing literature, and tests are held to be powerful determiners of what happens in classrooms. Claims are made for both negative and positive washback, and some writers go so far as to claim that a test's validity should be measured by the degree to which it has a beneficial effect on teaching. However, very little evidence has been presented to support the argument that tests infl…
Standards in testing: A study of the practice of UK examination boards in EFL/ESL testing
It is often asserted that the UK tradition in language testing is different from the North American tradition. Whereas in North America it is considered normal practice to examine the psychometric properties of tests, in the UK more emphasis is thought to be placed on test content. However, there has been no systematic study of this stereotypical view. The research reported in this article aimed to investigate the issue by examining the practices…
Examining washback: The Sri Lankan Impact Study
Language tests are frequently criticized for having negative impact on teaching — so-called 'negative washback'. Some writers believe that it is possible to bring about positive change in language teaching by changing tests. However, neither positive nor negative washback on classrooms has been established empirically by observation of classrooms. This article seeks to redress this situation by reporting on an innovative study of the impact of a …
Evaluating Second Language Education
Evaluating a placement test
The nature and validation of placement tests is rarely discussed in the language testing literature, yet placement tests are probably one of the commonest forms of tests used within institutions which are not designed by individual teachers and which are used to make decisions across the institution rather than within individual classes. Questions to be asked in the validation and evaluation of any placement test include the following: Does the p…
Responses and replies
Assessing Student Performance in the ESL Classroom
Toefl preparation courses: A study of washback
'Washback' (sometimes also known as 'backwash') is the influence that writers on language testing, syllabus design and language teaching believe a test will have on the teaching that precedes it. Much has been written about the influence of testing on teaching. To date, however, little empirical evidence is available to support the assertions of either positive or negative washback. The English proficiency test TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign…
Resources in Language Testing and Assessment
The TESOL Quarterlywelcomes evaluative reviews of publications relevant to TESOL professionals. In addition to textbooks and reference materials, these include computer and video software, testing instruments, and other forms of nonprint materials. Language Test Construction and Evaluation Assessing Language Ability in the Classroom (2nd ed.). Measured Words
Assessing Reading
This book is the most comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of the assessment of reading in a foreign or second language.
Sequencing as an item type
A text’s coherence clearly depends upon the way ideas are related within that text, both in terms of their logical relations, as well as the cohesive devices that show, or create, the links between ideas, across paragraphs and sentences. Thus, it would appear that part of the ability of a competent reader is to recognize the appropriate order of ideas in text, to identify cohesion and coherence in text in order to relate the ideas to each other, …
Technology in testing: The present and the future
Language testing and assessment (Part I)
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Language testing and assessment (Part 2)
In Part 1 of this two-part review article (Alderson & Banerjee, 2001), we first addressed issues of washback, ethics, politics and standards. After a discussion of trends in testing on a national level and in testing for specific purposes, we surveyed developments in computer-based testing and then finally examined self-assessment, alternative assessment and the assessment of young learners. In this second part, we begin by discussing recent theo…
The development of a suite of computer-based diagnostic tests based on the Common European Framework
DIALANG is an on-line language assessment system, which contains tests in 14 European languages and is based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). It is the first major testing system that is oriented towards diagnosing language skills and providing feedback to users rather than certifying their proficiency. This article describes the contents of Version 1 of DIALANG and the way in which the system works. This is followed by an ac…
Judging the Frequency of English Words
Given the lack of empirical corpus-based frequency counts in many languages, it would be useful and of theoretical interest if judgements of relative frequency of words in a language by proficient speakers of that language could substitute objective frequency counts for the purposes of devising language teaching materials, tests, and research instruments. The present paper reports on three investigations of frequency judgements. Using different m…
Test review: Test of English as a Foreign LanguageTM: Internet-based Test (Toefl iBT®)
Psychology (27 works) · Linguistics (19 works) · Mathematics education (18 works) · Computer Science (17 works) · Language assessment (13 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (11 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Second Language Learning and Teaching (8 works) · Student Assessment and Feedback (8 works) · Second Language Acquisition and Learning (7 works)