Assessing Academic English: Testing English Proficiency 1950-1989 - The IELTS Solution

by Alan Davies

Overview

The volume offers an explanatory account of the progress of academic language proficiency testing in the UK (and later Australia), from the British Council's English Proficiency Test Battery (EPTB), through the revolutionary English Language Testing Service (ELTS) to the present solution of IELTS. The three stages of academic language testing in the UK over the last 50 years move from grammar through real life to features of language use. At the same time, comparison of predictive validities suggests that all three measures account for very similar shares of the variance (about 10%) and that therefore the choice of an academic language proficiency test is determined only in part by predictive validity: other factors such as test delivery, test renewal in response to fashion, research and impact on stakeholders, and assessment of all four language skills are also important.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521542500
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/21/2008
Series:	Studies in Language Testing , #23
Edition description:	1ST
Pages:	472
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements     viii
Series Editors' note     ix
Abbreviations     xiii
The 1950s and 1960s: the English Proficiency Test Battery     1
Communicative interlude: the story of ELTS     28
Retreat from revolution: 1981-87     53
The ELTS revision plan: 1987-89     74
The development of IELTS - a pragmatic compromise     91
Appendices
Chronological overview of the history of academic English assessment and the development of ELTS/IELTS     117
English Proficiency Test Battery (EPTB) - British Council Information Leaflet     120
English Proficiency Test Battery (EPTB) - Short Version Form A, 1964 - Part 1 and Part 2     123
English Proficiency Test Battery (EPTB) - Short Version Form A, 1964 - Scoring Instructions     134
A Communication Needs Profile of Overseas Undergraduate Students in UK, 1977     136
Example of Content Specification and Item Analysis for the ELTS test M1 (Social Studies): Mark II Version     143
English Language Testing Service (ELTS) Specifications, 1978     144
Notes on the English Language Testing Service (ELTS), 1976-80 supplied by Brendan J Carroll, 18 August 2004     169
Notes to Registrars and Secretaries, 1979     171
ELTS Specimen Materials Booklet     175
Versions of ELTS, 1980     203
ELTS Administrators' Manual, 1986     307
Introduction to ELTS Validation Report, 1(ii) by Hughes, Porter and Weir, 1988     325
English Language Battery (ELBA)     327
Test of English for Educational Purposes (TEEP)     337
ELTS Revision - Specifications for M (Physical Science and Technology), 1989     355
Proposed Structure of IELTS Tests, 1989     361
An Introduction to IELTS, 1989     363
IELTS User Handbook, 1989     372
Versions of IELTS, 1989     381
Bibliography     448
Index     453