Research Catalog

Title

Principles of language testing / Alan Davies.

Author

Davies, Alan, 1931 February 17-

Publication

Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, Mass., USA : B. Blackwell, 1990.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 147 pages; 24 cm.

Summary

• Beginning with the view that language testing lies at the core of both language teaching and applied linguistics, Davies presents an account of the principles and place of language testing. He proposes that educators must accept the need to compromise between explicitness and uncertainty.
• Language testing lies at the core of both language teaching and applied linguistics. This is the challenging view set out by Alan Davies in this account of the principles and place of language testing today. Testing provides a means of establishing goals and standards for courses and syllabuses. For both teacher and learner it monitors success in attaining targets. But testing too provides a methodology for experiment and investigation in applied linguistics. Not only does it lend its techniques to research throughout discipline, but it also encapsulates many fundamental issues in the field. The practice of testing raises pervasive questions for example about the sampling of language and the problems of establishing reliable and valid criteria. Central to this book is the view that teachers and researchers must always accept the need creatively to compromise between the demand for explicitness and the underlying uncertainty of language testing. Drawing on many years experience and reflection, this is a considered and thoughtful account of the principles and procedures fundamental to language testing. -- Publisher description.

Series Statement

Applied language studies

Uniform Title

Applied language studies

Subject

• Language and languages > Ability testing
• Language and languages > Study and teaching
• Applied linguistics
• Language and languages > Examinations
• Language Tests
• applied linguistics
• Language and languages
• Applied linguistics
• Language and languages > Ability testing
• Language and languages > Study and teaching
• Sprachtest
• Theorie
• Taalbeheersing
• Tests
• Toegepaste taalwetenschap
• Taalvaardigheid
• Langage et langues > Tests d'aptitude

Genre/Form

Examinations

Note

• Includes index.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [139]-143)

Contents

1. Introduction --- 2. Requirements of Language Tests --- 3. Language Test Purposes --- 4. Language Test Validation --- 5. Uncertainty and Explicitness --- 6. Language Testing and Applied Linguistics --- 7. Language Tests and Evaluation: Preliminaries --- 8. Language Tests and Evaluation: Examples 1 --- 9. Language Tests and Evaluation: Examples 2.

ISBN

• 0631173420
• 9780631173427
• 0631173439
• 9780631173434

LCCN

90001441

OCLC

• ocm21077718
• 21077718
• SCSB-8813210

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library