Barry O'Sullivan

In teaching second language (L2) vocabulary, it is useful to have a way of prioritizing words to teach from among the multitude available. Word frequency, i.e. how often various words appear in written and spoken discourse, has typically been used to inform the emphasis taken. This volume explores the need for word lists based on direct tests of learner knowledge to inform L2 pedagogy. The Knowledge-based Vocabulary Lists (KVL) are introduced, and a description of the theoretical and practical basis for their development is given, highlighting pedagogical and assessment situations in which it is beneficial to know whether learners are likely to be able produce and correctly spell the words they know. A focus on L2 learners of English from Chinese, German, and Spanish L1 backgrounds resulted in three ranked lists of English-language word knowledge. The comparative probability of learners from these language backgrounds knowing each word are presented, and the correspondence with existing information about word frequency, word acquisition sequence, and word difficulty is explored. The value of the KVL is discussed in terms of providing one of the few evidence-based descriptions of L2 form-recall vocabulary knowledge available to teachers and researchers.

In teaching second language (L2) vocabulary, it is useful to have a way of prioritizing words to teach from among the multitude available. Word frequency, i.e. how often various words appear in written and spoken discourse, has typically been used to inform the emphasis taken. This volume explores the need for word lists based on direct tests of learner knowledge to inform L2 pedagogy. The Knowledge-based Vocabulary Lists (KVL) are introduced, and a description of the theoretical and practical basis for their development is given, highlighting pedagogical and assessment situations in which it is beneficial to know whether learners are likely to be able produce and correctly spell the words they know. A focus on L2 learners of English from Chinese, German, and Spanish L1 backgrounds resulted in three ranked lists of English-language word knowledge. The comparative probability of learners from these language backgrounds knowing each word are presented, and the correspondence with existing information about word frequency, word acquisition sequence, and word difficulty is explored. The value of the KVL is discussed in terms of providing one of the few evidence-based descriptions of L2 form-recall vocabulary knowledge available to teachers and researchers.

Validity: Theoretical Development and Integrated Arguments provides a historical overview of validity, targeting developments in both the UK and the US. It explores theoretical notions of validity as well as pragmatic validation practices and expands the arguments that need to be attended to document quality. The authors examine the need to consider, in addition to the psychometric evidence, which has continued to prevail especially in the US, other critical sources of quality evidence. They call attention to principled design and the evidence accumulated from various departments/groups involved in test design and development. They also promote the concept of impact by design, which places consequences at the top of the evidence chain to guide all testing efforts and quality documentation. They envision validity scholarship to attend to consequences at the individual, aggregate/group, and larger educational/organisational/societal levels. Concomitant with this attention to consequences are considerations of stakeholders and the tailoring of communication to engage intended groups. Such an approach yields a more convincing validity argument. The monograph ends by calling on professionals in the field to publish case studies which showcase localised validity arguments in practice. Local case studies represent critical endeavours to illustrate how evidence and arguments are pulled together to support the quality of a testing programme and all that it entails.

Validity: Theoretical Development and Integrated Arguments provides a historical overview of validity, targeting developments in both the UK and the US. It explores theoretical notions of validity as well as pragmatic validation practices and expands the arguments that need to be attended to document quality. The authors examine the need to consider, in addition to the psychometric evidence, which has continued to prevail especially in the US, other critical sources of quality evidence. They call attention to principled design and the evidence accumulated from various departments/groups involved in test design and development. They also promote the concept of impact by design, which places consequences at the top of the evidence chain to guide all testing efforts and quality documentation. They envision validity scholarship to attend to consequences at the individual, aggregate/group, and larger educational/organisational/societal levels. Concomitant with this attention to consequences are considerations of stakeholders and the tailoring of communication to engage intended groups. Such an approach yields a more convincing validity argument. The monograph ends by calling on professionals in the field to publish case studies which showcase localised validity arguments in practice. Local case studies represent critical endeavours to illustrate how evidence and arguments are pulled together to support the quality of a testing programme and all that it entails.

A PREVIOUSLY UNRECOGNISED CATEGORY of victims is identified in this new study into the Catholic Church's child sex abuse scandals: the Church's own non-offending priests. A detailed analysis of the perspectives of a select group of representative priests reveals that the scandals and the Church's often unsatisfactory handling of them have left significant psychological scars which the Church and even many clergy themselves have yet to recognise and address. Revd Dr Barry O'Sullivan, who is both a serving priest and a qualified counsellor, finds in his series of carefully controlled interviews with fellow priests that his beleaguered brotherhood should be classed among the secondary victims of this ongoing crisis for the Church. Originally undertaken as a doctoral study for the University of Manchester, this work casts new light on the far-reaching effects which this type of crisis can potentially inflict not just on Catholic priests but also on professionals in all walks of life which have been assailed by child sex abuse scandals.

In 1939 more than 140,000 New Zealanders enlisted to fight overseas during World War II. Of these, 104,000 served in the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Initially thrown into the doomed campaign to halt the German blitzkrieg on Greece and Crete (1941), the division was rebuilt under the leadership of MajGen Sir Bernard Freyberg, and became the elite corps within Montgomery’s Eighth Army in the desert. After playing a vital role in the victory at El Alamein (1942) the ‘Kiwis’ were the vanguard of the pursuit to Tunisia. In 1943–45 the division was heavily engaged in the Italian mountains, especially at Cassino (1944); it ended the war in Trieste. Meanwhile, a smaller NZ force supported US forces against the Japanese in the Solomons and New Guinea (1942–44). Fully illustrated with specially commissioned colour plates, this is the story of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force’s vital contribution to Allied victory in World War II.

This collection of original articles provides language teachers with a theoretical background of key issues associated with language testing as well as practical advice on how to improve the effectiveness of the tests they develop and implement. Written by internationally prominent researchers and educators, the chapters are organized into five sections: key issues in the field, assessment purposes and approaches, assessment of second language skills, technology in assessment, and administrative issues. Chapters assume no particular background knowledge and are written in an accessible style.

Aimed at researchers and students interested in language testing theory and practice, the chapters in this book vary in style and content and are both stimulating and robust. The book brings together a fascinating group of authors from the established to the new, presenting new ideas and challenging current orthodoxies.

Aimed at researchers and students interested in language testing theory and practice, the chapters in this book vary in style and content and are both stimulating and robust. The book brings together a fascinating group of authors from the established to the new, presenting new ideas and challenging current orthodoxies.

When we use a language we are always aware of our audience. This awareness is reflected, for example, in changes to the way we speak to the same person in different contexts or to different people in the same context. This book explores the way in which test takers' language can change in test events depending on either real or perceived similarities or differences between themselves and their interlocutors. The series of five studies reported are designed to explore aspects of test-taker performance on tests of speaking, and in doing so provide evidence in support of a proposed model of speaking test performance. Though the studies focus primarily on the effect on test-taker performance of characteristics associated with their interlocutor, they also provide empirical evidence of interactions between the factors. There are clear implications from the findings for all of those people involved in language testing and in researching spoken language.

Demand is steadily growing for language tests with a specialized focus which will suit the needs of key professional domains as diverse as business, law, the airline industry, and teacher education. This book explores the testing of language for sepcific purposes (LSP) from a theoretical and a practical perspective, with a particular focus on the testing of English for business purposes. A range of tests - both past and present - is reviewed, and the development of business English testing at Cambridge ESOL is discussed. The description of the revision of the Business English Certificates (BEC) forms a major part of the book and offers a unique insight into an approach to large-scale ESP test development and revision.