The Concise Companion to Language Assessment

ANTONY JOHN KUNNAN is a specialist in language assessment research who has held academic positions in many universities including ones in Bangalore, Los Angeles, Yerevan, Taichung, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Macau. He has published widely on various topics including validation and fairness and policy and practice for immigration and citizenship. His most recent authored book is Evaluating Language Assessments published in 2018. He was the founding Editor of Language Assessment Quarterly, the founding President of the Asian Association for Language Assessment, and the past President of the International Language Testing Association. In 2024, he was awarded the Cambridge-ILTA Distinguished Achievement Award in language assessment.

About the Editor xi

List of Contributors xiii

Acknowledgments xix

Introduction xxi

Theme 1 Fundamental Considerations

1 How to Conceptualize and Implement a Language Assessment 3
Lyle F. Bachman and Barbara Damböck

2 Learning-Oriented Language Assessment 22
James Enos Purpura

3 Assessing Integrated Skills 42
Alister Cumming

4 Dynamic Assessment in the Classroom 55
Matthew E. Poehner

5 Designing Evaluations for Validation of Language Assessments 67
Carol A. Chapelle, Erik Voss, and Haeun Kim

6 Fairness and Justice in Language Assessment 80
Antony John Kunnan

7 Statistics and Software for Test Revisions 93
Yo In’nami and Rie Koizumi

8 Language Assessment and Artificial Intelligence 112
Erik Voss

Theme 2 Assessing Language Skills and Resources

9 Assessing Listening 129
Elvis Wagner

10 Assessing Speaking 143
Barry O’Sullivan Copyrighted Material

11 Assessing Reading 154
William Grabe and Xiangying Jiang

12 Assessing Writing 168
Cecilia Guanfang Zhao

13 Assessing the Linguistic Resources of Meaningful Communication 181
James Enos Purpura and Saerhim Oh

14 Assessing Vocabulary 205
John Read

15 Assessing Pronunciation 216
Talia Isaacs

16 Assessing Interactional Competence and Pragmatics 230
Carsten Roever

Theme 3 Assessment Development and Evaluation

17 Assessing English as a Lingua Franca 245
Jennifer Jenkins and Constant Leung

18 Scenario- Based Language Assessment 255
Heidi Liu Banerjee

19 Adapting or Developing Source Materials for Listening and Reading Tests 270
Anthony Green

20 Automated Writing Assessment and Feedback 285
Sara T. Cushing and Sha Liu

Theme 4 Assessment Contexts

21 Classroom-Based Assessment Issues for Language Teacher Education 303
Constant Leung

22 Assessment of Young Language Learners 312
Mikyung Kim Wolf

23 Monitoring Progress in the Classroom 326
Matthew E. Poehner and Rama Mathew

24 Diagnostic Assessment Feedback in the 21st- Century Technology-Rich Classroom 339
Eunice Eunhee Jang, Maryam Wagner, Liam Hannah, and Hyunah Kim

25 Evolution and Future Trends in Tests of English for University Admissions 355
Xiaoming Xi, Brent Bridgeman, and Cathy Wendler

26 Assessing Health and Other Professionals 371
Lynda Taylor and John Pill

27 Acoustic and Temporal Analysis for Assessing Speaking 383
Okim Kang and Lucy Pickering

Theme 5 Assessment for Immigration and Citizenship

28 Language Testing for Residence and Citizenship in Europe: Justifications, Consequences, and Debates 401
Cecilie Hamnes Carlsen

29 Language Assessment for Immigration in Australia: Test- Policy- Discourse Entanglements and Their Ethical Implications 417
Kellie Frost

30 U.S. Immigration, Citizenship, and the Naturalization Test: Policies and practices 432
Antony John Kunnan

Theme 6 Qualitative Research Methods

31 Introspective Methods 453
Miyuki Sasaki and Yuhang Hu

32 Test-Taking Strategies 473
Yuyang Cai

33 Consequences, Impact, and Washback 496
Liying Cheng

34 Language Testing in the Dock 509
Glenn Fulcher

Theme 7 Quantitative Research Methods

35 Historical Overview of Classical Theory: Reliability 527
James Dean Brown

36 Classical Test Theory – Reliability 541
Yasuyo Sawaki

37 Norm-Referenced and Criterion-Referenced Score Interpretations in Language Assessment 555
Ikkyu Choi

38 Practical Uses of EFA and SEM for Language Assessment Researchers 570
Gary J. Ockey

39 Item Response Theory in Language Assessment 588
Shangchao Min and Lianzhen He

40 Many-Facet Rasch Analysis for Evaluating Second Language Tests 602
Khaled Barkaoui

41 Psychometric Considerations for a Computerized Adaptive Language Test 619
Steven W. Nydick, J.R. Lockwood, and Mancy Liao

Theme 8 The Role of Technology

42 Computer-Assisted Language Testing 637
Ruslan Suvorov, Yasin Karatay, and Volker Hegelheimer

43 Computer-Adaptive Language Testing: Focus on Language Issues 649
Ramsey Cardwell, Ben Naismith, and Micheline Chalhoub-Deville

44 Automated Writing Evaluation 661
Jill Burstein and Yigal Attali

45 Detecting Plagiarism and Cheating 671
Ardeshir Geranpayeh

Index 681