The Writings of Lyle F. Bachman

James Enos Purpura is Professor Emeritus of linguistics and education in the Applied Linguistics and TESOL Program and Director of the Scenario-Based Language Assessment Lab at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. His scholarly interests include: the assessment of grammar, meaning, and pragmatics; cognition and language assessment, and both learning-oriented and scenario-based assessment. He was Editor of Language Assessment Quarterly and Past President of the International Language Testing Association. Antony John Kunnan is a language assessment specialist with Carnegie Mellon University, USA, as a Senior Research Fellow. His research interests are fairness of tests and testing practice, assessment literacy, research methods and statistics, ethics and standards, and language assessment policy. He was founding editor of Language Assessment Quarterly, past president of the International Language Testing Association and the founding president of the Asian Association for Language Assessment. In 2024, he was awarded the Cambridge/ILTA Distinguished Achievement Award.

Series Editors' Preface

The L. F. Bachman Collection Project

by James Enos Purpura

Acknowledgments

Permissions

Introduction

Introducing L. F. Bachman’s Milieu

by James Enos Purpura & Antony John Kunnan

Section 1: About L. F. Bachman

Introduction

Article 1.1

Language Assessment: Its Development and Future—An interview with Lyle F. Bachman

by Jing Chen (2011)

Article 1.2

A biographical sketch of Lyle Bachman

by Antony John Kunnan (2013)

Section 2: Validation: Theory and Practice

Introduction

Article 2.1

The construct validation of some components of communicative proficiency (with Adrian S. Palmer) (1982)

Article 2.2

A comparison of the abilities measured by the Cambridge and Educational Testing Service EFL test batteries (with Fred Davidson and John Foulkes) (1990)

Article 2.3

Constructing an assessment use argument and supporting claims about test taker-assessment interactions in evidence-centered assessment design (2003)

Article 2.4

Building and supporting a case for test use (2005)

Article 2.5

How is educational measurement supposed to deal with test use? (2013)

Article 2.6

A new approach to classroom-based language assessment (with Barbara E. Damböck) (2022)

Article 2.7 (Online)

Bachman, L. F. (1982). The trait structure of cloze test scores. TESOL Quarterly, 16, 61-70.

Article 2.8 (Online)

Anderson, N., Bachman, L. F., Perkins, K., & Cohen, A. (1991). An exploratory study into the construct validity of a reading comprehension test Triangulation of data sources. Language Testing, 8, 41-66.

Article 2.9 (Online)

Bachman, L. F. (2016, unpublished). Assessment justification: An alternative to validation for evaluating and assuring assessment quality

Section 3: Defining What Language Tests Measure–L2 Proficiency and Performance

Introduction

Article 3.1

An examination of some language tests from a communicative viewpoint (1985)

Article 3.2

Some reflections on task-based language performance assessment. (2002)

Article 3.3

Alternative interpretations of alternative assessments: Some validity issues in educational performance assessments (2002)

Article 3.4

What is the construct? The dialectic of abilities and context in defining constructs in language assessment (2007)

Article 3.5 (Online)

Bachman, L. F., & Sauvignon, S. J. (1986). The evaluation of communicative language proficiency: A critique of the ACTFL oral interview. The Modern Language Journal, 70, 380-390.

Article 3.6 (Online)

Bachman, L. F. (1988). Problems in examining the validity of the ACTFL oral proficiency interview. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 10, 149-164.

Article 3.7 (Online)

Bachman, L. F. (1990). Constructing measures and measuring constructs. In B. Harley, P. Allen, J. Cummins, & M. Swain (Eds.), The Development of Second Language Proficiency (pp. 26-38). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Section 4: Test Task Characteristics

Introduction

Article 4.1

Performance on cloze tests with fixed-ratio and rational deletions (1985)

Article 4.2

The use of test method characteristics in the content analysis and design of EFL proficiency tests (with Fred Davidson and Michael Milanovic) (1996)

Article 4.3 (Online)

Bachman, L., F., Lynch, B., & Mason, M. (1995). Investigating variability in tasks and rater judgments in a performance test of foreign language speaking. Language Testing, 12, 238-257.

Article 4.4 (Online)

Bachman, L. F., & Palmer, A. S. (1981). The construct validation of the FSI oral interview. Language Learning, 31, 67-86.

Article 4.5 (Online)

Bachman, L. F. (1981). An experiment in a picture-stimuli procedure for testing oral production. In A. S. Palmer et al. (Eds.), The construct validation of tests of communicative competence (pp. 140-148). Washington, D. C. TESOL.

Article 4.6 (Online)

Bachman, L. F., Kunnan, A. Vanniarajan, S., & Lynch, B. (1988). Task and ability analysis as a basis of examining the content and construct comparability of two EFL proficiency test batteries. Language Testing, 5, 128-159.

Section 5: Language Testing–Second Language Acquisition

Introduction

Article 5.1

Language Testing-SLA research interfaces (1988)

Article 5.2 (Online)

Bachman, L. F. (1988). Language Testing-SLA interfaces: An update. In L. F. Bachman & A. Cohen (Eds.), Interfaces between SLA and Language Testing Research (pp. 1-31). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Section 6: Epistemological Issues in Applied Linguistics Research

Introduction

Article 6.1

Generalizability: A journey into the nature of empirical research in applied linguistics (2006)

Article 6.2 (Online)

Bachman, L. F. (2009). Generalizability and Research Use Arguments. In Erickan, K. & Roth, W-M. (Eds.) Generalizing from Educational Research: Beyond qualitative and quantitative polarization. (pp. 127-148) New York: Routledge.

Section 7: State of the Art and Reflections

Introduction

Article 7.1

What does language testing have to offer? (1991)

Article 7.2

Modern language testing at the turn of the century: Assuring that what we count counts (2000)

Article 7.3

Ongoing challenges [in Language Assessment] (2014)

Article 7.4 (Online)

Bachman, L. F., & Purpura, J. E. (2008). Language Assessments: Gate-Keepers or Door Openers? In B. M. Spolsky, & F. M. Hult, (Eds.), The Handbook of Educational Linguistics (pp. 456-468) Boston: Wiley-Blackwell.

List of Bachman’s publications

Author and Subject index