University of Leicester
Browse

Limited Aspects of Reality: Frames of reference in language assessment

Download (1022.94 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2013-10-14, 12:32 authored by Glenn Fulcher, Agneta Marie-Louise Svalberg
Language testers and educational measurement practitioners operate within two frames of reference: norm-referenced (NRT) and criterion-referenced testing (CRT). The former underpins the world of large-scale standardized testing that prioritizes variability and comparison. The latter supports substantive score meaning in formative and domain specific assessment. It has recently been claimed that the criterion-referenced enterprise is all but dead; its one legacy being the way in which test results are communicated (Davidson, 2012, p. 198). In this article, we argue that the announcement of the demise of CRT is premature. But we acknowledge that what for the most part passes as CRT is in fact not criterion-referenced, and is based upon a corruption of the original meaning of “criterion” as domain-specific performance. This distortion took place when NRT co-opted the term “standard” to serve as a rationale for the measurement enterprise of establishing cut-scores to retrofit NR tests with meaning derived from external scales. We argue that this is not CRT, and the true heirs of the CRT movement in applied linguistics are researchers who base test design in the careful analysis of construct and content in domain specific communication.

History

Citation

International Journal of English Studies, 2013, 13 (2), pp. 1-20

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE/School of Education

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

International Journal of English Studies

Publisher

University of Murcia

issn

1578-7044

eissn

1989-6131

Copyright date

2013

Available date

2013-10-14

Publisher version

http://revistas.um.es/ijes/index

Language

en

Usage metrics

    University of Leicester Publications

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC