alternative assessment approaches received considerable attention soon after a discontent with traditional, one-shot testing. these approaches, however, have been used only to improve learners’ linguistic ability despite communicative models of language which pointed that knowledge of language also involves pragmatic ability (bachman, 1990; bachman & palmer, 1996). the present study tries t...

in the name of allah, the compassionate, the merciful   my esteemed friends and colleagues from thousands of years ago, with the increase in the number of immigrants for finding new lands and then for trading, learning other languages became inevitable. from second half of the twentieth century, the ever increasing need for getting into communication with others, development in technological gr...

47 1092-5171/03/3001-0047 ABSTRACT: Some current educational reforms (U.S. Department of Education, 2002) focus on preparing students for mandated testing. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 1997) requires education agencies to provide students with disabilities with the opportunity to participate in testing. Speech-language pathologists face the challenge of helping student...

Diagnostic testing has long been valued by language testing researchers and practitioners for its ability to inform both teaching and learning. However, the number of well-developed diagnostic language tests is relatively low, most likely due to the difficulty in constructing a diagnostic test that incorporates a wide enough range of language skills. In recent years, the advancement of technolo...

The Zhuang language test (Vahcuengh Sawcuengh Suijbingz Gaujsi, VSSG) is the first minority in People’s Republic of China. It was designed with multiple goals including improving teaching, recruiting students for relevant majors tertiary study, identifying proficiency work-related applications, and piloting standardisation national languages. Informed by a use-oriented testing perspective that ...