A study of the imp act of a major recent language education reform p roject in Italy emp loyed a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection
The important yet under-researched role of item writers in the selection and adaptation of texts for high-stakes reading tests is investigated through a case study involving a group of trained item writers working on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). In the first phase of the study, participants were invited to reflect in writing, and then audio-recorded in a semantic-differential-based joint discussion, on the processes they employed to generate test material. The group were next observed at a simulated item writers' editing meeting to refine their texts and items for an IELTS reading test module. The participants' written descriptions and recorded discussions provided rich data on how source texts were perceived, selected and adapted for the Test. The study reports findings from textual analyses using indices of readability and lexical density from the original material sourced by the item writers and their adapted versions for the test. Results from qualitative and quantitive analyses are discussed in terms of the implications for the IELTS reading module of editing actions such as: reducing redundancy and technical language, changing styles, deciding on potentially sensitive issues and relationships between texts and test items. The important issue of text authenticity in tests such as IELTS is also broached.Item writers make an essential contribution to test validity, but have an ambiguous status in the practice of educational testing. On the one hand, item writing is seen to be a creative art (Ebel, 1951;Wesman, 1971) requiring extensive training and mentoring of practitioners and the flexible, expert interpretation of guidelines. On the other hand, test
The English Profile Programme is a major inter-disciplinary, research-based collaborative project to develop detailed reference level descriptions (RLDs) of the English of L2 language learners, linked to the general principles and approaches of the Council of Europe. The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) provides language proficiency bands against which the profile is categorised. Large samples of writing and speech are required for the Programme, with the Cambridge Learner Corpus providing data for the initial phase.A major objective of English Profile is to analyse learner language to throw more light on what learners of English can and can't do at different CEFR levels, and to assess how well they perform using the linguistic exponents of the language at their disposal (i.e. using the grammar and lexis of English).
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