Publisher's Synopsis
"Language Testing is the practice and study of evaluating the proficiency of an individual in using a particular language effectively." Exploring Language Assessment and Testing is a straightforward introduction to the field that provides an inclusive and impartial survey of both classroom based assessment by teachers and larger scale testing, using concrete examples to guide students to the relevant literature. All the numerous definitions of language given by various thinkers bring out different aspects of language and supplement one another in making us understand all the facts of language. A language by which we mean a spoken language may be defined as "a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which human beings communicate and co-operate with one-another'. This book is an indispensable introduction to the areas of language assessment and testing, and will be of interest to language teachers as well as postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students studying Language Education, Applied Linguistics and Language Assessment. Volume 2 : Language is the ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication, particularly the human ability to do so, and a language is any specific example of such a system. The scientific study of language is called linguistics. The book is basic in the sense that it begins at the beginning and is entirely self-contained. It is also comprehensive and contains detailed descriptions of modern techniques in Practical Language Testing and Assessment. The aim has been to make the subject matter broadly accessible to advanced students, whilst at the same time providing a reference text for graduate scholars and research scientists active in the field. Volume 3 : Language testing resembles areas of applied linguistics such as curriculum design, where the outcome of the research is a tangible, usable product. Much of the expertise that is required for the successful construction of practical, usable tests is technical, so that language testing is often seen as a somewhat specialized and technically complex field. However, it is also a theoretically rich field. In order to conceptualize the threats to the meaningfulness of test scores, a complex theory of test validity has been developed. It is hoped that this book would provide to a wide cross-section of people an understanding of some of the issues on significant aspects of areas of concern. The book is basic in the sense that it begins at the beginning and is entirely self-contained. It is also comprehensive and contains detailed descriptions of Language Testing. The aim has been to make the subject matter broadly accessible to advanced students, whilst at the same time providing a reference text for graduate scholars and research scientists active in the field.
