Language Testing and Assessment in Society

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• evaluate the quality of a given test or testing framework
• develop a critique of language testing policies and models
• use established and innovative strategies to evaluate tests and test frameworks
• identify social impacts of language testing processes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• validity and reliability aspects of language testing and assessment
• the ways tests are constructed and administered
• emerging issues in language testing and assessment
• the purposes and traditions of language testing and assessment
• the construct of communicative competence in language testing and assessment
• the roles of assessment in education, work contexts, and migration and citizenship policies

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• prepare and deliver oral presentations
• work effectively in a team
• plan and organise your own learning schedule

The module begins with practical engagement with a range of samples of language performance (spoken and written English), assessment of the performance for specific education, migration and citizenship contexts, and critical analysis of and reflection on the basis for assessments. In the light of this practical experience, the history of language testing and assessment, with particular reference to the case of English over recent decades, will be explored. This account will serve as a platform for critically examining a range of theoretical policy and practice issues, which typically covers:

• The nature of communicative competence constructs which underpin language tests;
• The relevance of communicative competence and language proficiency to different social policy fields;
• The validity of the range of uses of language tests;
• The features of language tests and their representativeness of capacities for effective communication;
• The processes of making and standardising judgements on performances;
• The attributes of language testers and assessors.

A weekly lecture will provide an overview and a guide to the research and literature on for each topic. The weekly seminar will include a mix of practical tasks on tests and policy documents which reference tests (normally in the early weeks of the module) and student presentations (normally in the later weeks of the module).

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.