Practical Language Testing

Book excerpt: Practical Language Testing equips you with the skills, knowledge and principles necessary to understand and construct language tests. This practical guide offers step-by-step guidelines on the design of assessments within the classroom and provides the necessary tools to analyse and improve assessments, as well as deal with alignment to externally imposed standards. Testing is situated both within the classroom and within the larger social context, and readers are provided with the knowledge necessary to make realistic and fair decisions about the use and implementation of tests. Now in its second edition, this respected text has been substantially revised and updated, including a new chapter on validity drawing from the author's Messick Award for innovation in validity theory and practice. It also includes expanded coverage of standardised testing and learning-oriented assessment, and introduces task design features, including authenticity, and automated assessment. With its frequently updated online resources to support language assessment (https://languagetesting.info/), this book is the ideal introduction for students of applied linguistics, TESOL and modern foreign language teaching, as well as practising teachers required to design or implement language testing programmes.