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Full-Text Articles in Education
Certificating Ielts Writing And Speaking Examiners, Sacha Develle
Certificating Ielts Writing And Speaking Examiners, Sacha Develle
Dr Sacha DeVelle
IELTS examiners are subject to rigorous procedures for the certification of new examiners and the re-certification of experienced examiners. The IELTS Professional Support Network (PSN) integrates these procedures via a global system of recruitment, induction, training, standardisation, certification and monitoring. Research funded by the IELTS Joint-funded Research Program (Brown 2000, Furneaux and Rignall 2007), and outcomes from The IELTS Speaking Test Revision Project (1998-2001) and Writing Test Revision Project (2001-2005) have provided valuable insights into examiner training and the regular updating of examiner certification and training materials. Studies in Language Testing 19 (Taylor and Falvey 2007) documents Speaking and Writing …
The 2007 Revised Ielts Pronunciation Scale, Sacha Develle
The 2007 Revised Ielts Pronunciation Scale, Sacha Develle
Dr Sacha DeVelle
A series of articles in Research Notes (February 2001, July 2001, November 2001, November 2006) reported the development, validation and implementation of the IELTS Speaking Test Revision Project (1998–2001). More recent research (Brown 2006, Brown and Taylor 2006) highlighted the need for clearer specification on the Pronunciation scale. Further revision arose as a consequence of this research and the continuing evolutionary process reflecting the test’s context of use. The present article describes a two-phase study using a mixed method (quantitative and qualitative) approach to examine raters’ marking behaviour and perceptions of the newly revised IELTS Pronunciation scale.
Developing Tests And Questionnaires For A National Assessment Of Educational Achievement, Prue Anderson, George Morgan
Developing Tests And Questionnaires For A National Assessment Of Educational Achievement, Prue Anderson, George Morgan
Prue Anderson
The authors introduce readers to the activities involved in the development of achievement tests, including developing as assessment framework, writing multiple choice and constructed response type items, pretesting, producing test booklets, and handscoring items. A section on questionnaire construction features designing questionnaires, writing questions, coding responses, and linking questionnaire and test score data. The final section covers the development of a test administration manual, selecting test administrators, and contacting sampled schools. A companion CD contains examples of released items from national and international tests, sample questionnaires, and administrative manuals. [Back cover, ed]
The Effect Of Test-Taker Sex, Audience And Topic On Task Performance In Tape-Mediated Assessment Of Speaking, Tom Lumley, Barry O'Sullivan
The Effect Of Test-Taker Sex, Audience And Topic On Task Performance In Tape-Mediated Assessment Of Speaking, Tom Lumley, Barry O'Sullivan
Dr Tom Lumley
There is growing interest in the effect on candidate performance of characteristics of the interlocutor in tests of speaking. A range of variables associated with the interlocutor may cause systematic variation in linguistic performance, and consequently in scores awarded. This paper hypothesises that there may be effects on performance attributable to an interaction of these variables; in the present study, the task topic, the sex of the person presenting the topic and the sex of the candidate. This investigated in the context of a tape-mediated test of speaking, where no interlocutor is actually present; instead, stimulus material is presented by …
The Judgements Of Language-Trained Raters And Doctors In A Test Of English For Health Professionals, Tom Lumley
The Judgements Of Language-Trained Raters And Doctors In A Test Of English For Health Professionals, Tom Lumley
Dr Tom Lumley
Research to date has produced conflicting findings concerning the relative harshness and other characteristics of language- trained raters versus 'naive' native speaker or occupational expert raters. This question is considered in the context of a recent standard- setting project carried out for the Occupational English Test, an occupation specific test of English for overseas- trained health professionals. 20 audio recordings of role plays from recent administrations of the tests were each rated by 10 trained ESL raters and 10 medical practitioners. Broad similarities in judgements indicate reliance on ESL-trained raters can be justified.