Georgetown University Press Useful Assessment and Evaluation in Language Education (Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics)

This volume, derived from papers presented at the 2016 GURT conference, seeks to explore research and examples of practice of assessment and evaluation in language education. The specific--and varied--ways in which assessment and evaluation are able to impact learning and teaching have become an important language education research concern, particularly as educators are increasingly called upon to implement these processes for improvement, accountability, or curricular development purposes. This volume is divided into three parts, each exploring a different element of the conversation around assessment: "Connecting assessment, learners, and learning"; "Innovating, framing, and exploring assessment in language education"; and "Validity evaluation." Review This book is an important step in the field's movement toward recognizing and emphasizing the importance of assessment as part of the language learning process. Rather than focusing solely on the more traditional area of assessing language proficiency, this book rightfully emphasizes the importance of the usefulness of assessments.--Elvis Wagner, Associate Professor of Education, Temple University This book provides language assessment students, researchers, and practitioners an up-to-date and comprehensive collection of articles that collectively address the potentially transforming role of assessment and evaluation in language education. It showcases the diverse and constantly expanding theories, methods, contexts, and purposes that inform the development, validation, and uses of language assessments to enhance the educational enterprise.--Lorena Llosa, Ph.D., NYU Raises the need for further research in many areas related to language assessment and evaluation, and draws attention to the many challenges that remain for language teachers tasked with implementing assessments within the Assessment for Learning framework. Overall, this collection of well-written studies is laudable in the contribution it makes to this field of research.--Teachers College Record About the Author John McE. Davis is John McE. Davis is Research Scientist at the Center for English Language Learning and Assessment at the Educational Testing Service, USA. His research interests include language program evaluation, language assessment, and questionnaire research methods. John M. Norris is Senior Research Director of the Center for English Language Learning and Assessment at the Educational Testing Service, USA. His primary research interests include educational uses of language assessment, program evaluation, task-based language teaching, and research synthesis. Margaret E. Malone is Director of the Assessment and Evaluation Language Resource Center (AELRC) and Research Professor at Georgetown University and Director of the Center for Assessment, Research and Development at ACTFL. Her current research focuses on language assessment literacy, oral proficiency assessment and the relative difficulty of learning different languages. Todd H. McKay is a Ph.D. candidate in applied linguistics and research assistant with the AELRC at Georgetown University. His research interests include language assessment, language program evaluation, and applied measurement, with emphases on the less commonly taught languages and language programs in South Asia. Young-A Son is a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics at Georgetown University. Her research interests include the assessment of foreign and heritage language learners. More specifically, her work examines validation of language tests and other indicators of language proficiency for research as well as instructional purposes.