Although second language learners' pragmatic competence (their ability to use language in context) is an essential part of their general communicative competence, it has not been a part of second language tests. This book helps fill this gap by describing the development and validation of a web-based test of ESL pragmalinguistics. The instrument assesses learners' knowledge of routine formulae, speech acts, and implicature in 36 multiple-choice and brief-response items. The test's quantitative and qualitative validation with 300 learners showed high reliability and provided strong evidence of the instrument's construct validity. Its web-based format makes it easy to administer and score. The book ends with a discussion of future research directions in assessing second language pragmatics.

This book marks ten years of language test development and language testing research in Austria. Part I describes the development of large-scale tests at all levels of the educational system. The documentation covers German as the language of instruction for the majority of pupils, the so-called modern foreign languages English, French, Italian and Spanish, as well as the classical languages Latin and Ancient Greek. Part II brings together a considerable body of research which has been conducted in the course and the wake of the development and implementation of the new assessment philosophy during the past ten years. The studies are accommodated in a framework of test validation, which could serve as orientation for future research in language testing in Austria. Das Buch blickt auf zehn Jahre professioneller Testentwicklung und Sprachtestforschung in OEsterreich zuruck. Teil I beschreibt die Entwicklung von Testsystemen auf allen Ebenen des Bildungssystems. Die Dokumentation umfasst Deutsch, das fur die grosse Mehrheit Unterrichtssprache ist, die sogenannten modernen Fremdsprachen Englisch, Franzoesisch, Italienisch und Spanisch sowie die klassischen Sprachen Latein und Altgriechisch. Teil II umfasst eine beachtliche Anzahl von Untersuchungen, die wahrend und nach der Entwicklung und Implementierung der neuen Prufungsphilosophie in den letzten zehn Jahren durchgefuhrt wurden. Die Untersuchungen werden in ein Validierungskonzept eingeordnet, das als Orientierung fur zukunftige Sprachtestforschung in OEsterreich dienen koennte.

Item Response Theory, though it has become a widely recognized tool in language testing research, is still not used frequently in practical language assessment projects. This book intends to provide a theoretical overview as well as to give practical guidance concerning the application of IRT in item bank building in a language testing context by presenting a particular project in a higher education setting.

Strategic competence (a higher-order executive ability that executes strategies for language use) has long been theorized as a significant non-linguistic factor affecting second language (L2) communicative ability. Despite its recognition, the parameters of strategic competence have been poorly defined and researched. Utilizing the multitrait-multimethod approach, this book examines the relationships of general strategic knowledge and strategic regulation in a specific high-stakes, test-taking context to English as a foreign language (EFL) reading test performance over time through the use of a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. Since it is large-scale and longitudinal in nature, this research provides an opportunity to generalize the unfolding nature of strategic competence. The book concludes by proposing multidimensional models to assist researching strategic competence and by discussing pedagogical models for strategic reading instruction.