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Introduction: State of the Art of Assessing Second Language Abilities

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Revisiting the Assessment of Second Language Abilities: From Theory to Practice

Part of the book series: Second Language Learning and Teaching ((SLLT))

Abstract

Assessing the language abilities has been given its momentum in second language assessment and evaluation. Assessing such constructs has also undergone different changes that emanated from one testing paradigm to another, starting with discrete, integrative and then communicative testing. Testing trends also shifted from norm-referenced to criterion-referenced testing, thus stressing the idea of assessing the language ability against a well-defined criterion. In this regard, high-stakes international tests, such as the IELTS, TOEFL, etc., have been investigating the different facets of this construct that keeps evolving to form a comprehensive view about including so many intertwined variables to define the construct of language ability. There is a necessity to measure the language ability in a very objective way by using statistical tests to preserve test usefulness and equity. This has been the major concern of the different testing psychometric theories.

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  1. Faculty of Human and Social Sciences of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia

    Sahbi Hidri

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    Sahbi Hidri

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Hidri, S. (2018). Introduction: State of the Art of Assessing Second Language Abilities. In: Hidri, S. (eds) Revisiting the Assessment of Second Language Abilities: From Theory to Practice. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62884-4_1

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