This volume brings together a collection of chapters outlining the principles and processes of action research and providing case studies of practitioner action research completed by teachers in the ELICOS (English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students) sector in Australia. The Action Research in ELICOS programme in which the teachers participated was an innovative collaboration between English Australia, the professional body for ELICOS, and Cambridge English Language Assessment commencing in 2010 and continuing to the present. An introductory chapter describes the initiation of the programme and the professional model adopted to support and facilitate the teachers' research, while a concluding chapter considers the impact of the programme on the teachers and on the ELICOS sector more generally. Case studies by the teachers present the action research processes they undertook to research receptive and productive skills and assessment of these skills in their classrooms.

This publication highlights the need for test developers to provide clear explanations of the ability constructs which underpin tests offered in the public domain. An explanation is increasingly required or if the validity of test score interpretation and use are to be supported both logically and with empirical evidence. The book demonstates the application of a comprehensive test validation framework which adopts a socio-cognitive perspective. The framework embraces six core components which reflect the practical nature and quality of an actual testing event. It examines Cambridge ESOL writing tasks from the following perspectives: Test Taker, Cognitive Validity, Context Validity, Scoring Validity, Criterion-related Validity and Consequential Validity. The authors show how an understanding and analysis of the framework and its components in relation to specific writing tests can assist test developers to operationalise their tests more effectively, especially in relation to criterial distinctions across test levels.