A Principled Approach to Language Assessment Considerations for the U.S. Foreign Service Institute (2020) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 9-16
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From page 9... ...
BACKGROUND Given recent developments in language assessment, FSI asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to review the strengths and weaknesses of key assessment1 approaches for assessing lan 1 Although in the testing field "assessment" generally suggests a broader range of approaches than "test," in the FSI context both terms are applicable, and they are used interchangeably throughout this report.
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From page 10... ...
For these reasons, FSI wanted to take a fresh look at language testing options that are now available and that could be relevant to testing the language proficiency of Foreign Service officers. THE COMMITTEE'S APPROACH The committee's charge includes questions about specific approaches to language assessment and their psychometric characteristics.
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The committee will consider the key assessment approaches in the research literature that are appropriate for language testing, including, but not limited to, assessments that use task-based or performance-based approaches, adaptive online test administration, and portfolios. The committee will collect information that helps answer the following questions: • What assessment formats and approaches are feasible for language proficiency testing?
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From page 12... ...
To better understand the kinds of assessment methods that might be most relevant to this use, the committee sought information about the language tasks that officers perform on the job and the nature of the decisions that need to be made about test takers based on their language proficiency. Thus, one of the most important aspects of the committee's information gathering was a series of discussions with FSI representatives about the current context and practice of language assessment in the agency.
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The committee addresses it under the broad umbrella of validity, focusing on the validity of intended score interpretations and uses for individuals from different population groups. Ideally, scores obtained under the specified test administrations procedures should have the same meaning for all test takers in the intended testing population.
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A principled approach specifically focuses on "validity arguments that support intended score interpretations and uses and development of empirical evidence to support those score interpretations and uses throughout the design, development, and implementation process" (Ferrara et al., 2016, p.
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FSI's request to the National Academies was framed in the context of FSI's testing needs, and the field's principled approaches specifically direct attention toward the context and intended use for an assessment. As a result, many of the details of the report are necessarily geared toward the context of FSI's language assessment needs.
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From page 16... ...
16 A PRINCIPLED APPROACH TO LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT argument within the context of test use to assessment design are applicable to all testing programs, even if the specifics of the discussion in this report relate primarily to FSI. In addition, the range of possible design choices for an assessment program are similar across programs, even if the specific contexts of different programs will affect which of those choices may be most appropriate.
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