Introduction
This chapter addresses major issues involved in training language instructors to make informed decisions throughout the assessment process. Within the context of the chapter, the ‘assessment process’ refers to developing, scoring, interpreting and improving classroom‐based assessments as well as selecting, administering, interpreting and sharing results of large‐scale tests developed by professional testing organizations (Stoynoff and Chapelle, 2005). This chapter also explores the gap between language testing practice and the training of language instructors in language assessment, and the importance of bridging this gap for improved learning, teaching and assessment (Trim, 2005). The term ‘assessment literacy’ has been proposed to describe what language instructors need to know about assessment (Boyles, 2005; Stiggins, 1997; Stoynoff and Chapelle, 2005). This chapter closes with a discussion of this term.
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Notes
- 1.
Versions of the CEFR have been translated into a number of languages, including Japanese (Trim, 2005).
- 2.
Spolsky (1981), Barnwell (1996) and others have alternative names for this period; this piece uses the original terms.
- 3.
While some large‐scale tests for admittance to universities or professions included oversight by committees, there is no evidence of such oversight for classroom assessment.
- 4.
Canale and Swain (1982) and other refer to this as “communicative competence” or “the proficiency approach” (Barnwell, 1996).
- 5.
Googlescholar is an online search engine that searches for scholarly texts ( www.googlescholar.com).
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Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Elana Shohamy, Jamie Schissel, Colleen Gallagher, Meg Montee and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on this chapter.
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Malone, M.E. (2008). Training in Language Assessment. In: Hornberger, N.H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_178
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