Underhill Nic 1987 Testing Spoken Language A Handbook Of Oral Testing Techniques Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Testing Spoken Language

Talking and Testing

This book brings together a collection of current research on the assessment of oral proficiency in a second language. Fourteen chapters focus on the use of the language proficiency interview or LPI to assess oral proficiency. The volume addresses the central issue of validity in proficiency assessment: the ways in which the language proficiency interview is accomplished through discourse.Contributors draw on a variety of discourse perspectives, including the ethnography of speaking, conversation analysis, language socialization theory, sociolinguistic variation theory, human interaction research, and systemic functional linguistics. And for the first time, LPIs conducted in German, Korean, and Spanish are examined as well as interviews in English. This book sheds light on such important issues as how speaking ability can be defined independently of an LPI that is designed to assess it and the extent to which an LPI is an authentic representation of ordinary conversation in the target language. It will be of considerable interest to language testers, discourse analysts, second language acquisition researchers, foreign language specialists, and anyone concerned with proficiency issues in language teaching and testing.

Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics (GURT) 1989: Language Teaching, Testing, and Technology

Welcoming RemarksJames E. Alatis On behalf of the Center for Applied LinguisticsCharles A. Ferguson On behalf of the Georgetown University BicentennialCharles L. Currie, S.J. Presentation of Bicentennial Medals to Henry and Renée KahaneJames E. Alatis The last forty years: Real progress or not: Sir John Lyons, LittD., F.B.A. Language teaching The integration of language and content instruction for language minority and language majority studentsG. Richard Tucker and JoAnn Crandall Practice makes less imperfect: Users' needs and their influence on machine translation developmentVeronica Lawson Acquisition vs. learning in reading pronunciation by adult EFL studentsRobert Lado Discourse and text: A narrative view of the foreign language lessonClaire J. Kramsch Language teaching and theories of languageCharles A. Ferguson Cohesion and coherence in the presentation of machine translation productsMuriel Vasconcellos Second language acquisition: do we really want a unified theory?Richard Lutz Less commonly taught languages: The current situationKarin C. Ryding Towards a rationale for language teaching technologyPeter Strevens ESL program evaluation: Realities and perspectivesAli Hajjaj and Balkees Al-Najjar Discourse frames and the cycle of instructionFrederick Bosco and Anna De Meo Teaching language and culture: Old problems, new approachesRoss Steele The role of language in the immigrant's lifeHenry Kahane New trends in foreign language teaching: Teaching English in the Italian medical school curriculumMaria Ibba Lexical search strategies in L2: A developmental analysisIrene Thompson Interaction and communication in the language class in an age of technologyWilga M. Rivers Language Testing Technological, methodological, and assessment challenges: Can the foreign language teacher survive? Ray T. Clifford Multipurpose language tests: Is a conceptual and operational synthesis possible?John L. D. Clark Testing English as a world language: Issues in assessing nonnative proficiencyPeter H. Lowenberg Oral proficiency in the less commonly taught languages: What do we know about it?Richard T. Thompson Language proficiency testing with limited English-proficient studentsJ. Michael O'Malley 'Passages': Life, the universe and language proficiency assessmentThea C. Bruhn Language testing in the secondary schools: Past experience and new directionsRebecca M. Valette Who is in charge in the learner-curriculum-testing connection? Heidi Byrnes Language technology Assessment, articulation, accountability: New roles for the language labSue K. Otto The synergism of technology and theory in classroom second language acquisition researchNina Garrett Semantic subclasses of temporal nounsMichael Zarechnak From wire recorder to satellite dish: The impact of technology on language teachingProtase E. Woodford Challenging teachers and harnessing technologyJune K. Phillips Building on the past: New directions in CAI/ILFrank Otto Language learning, cultural understanding, and the computer Judith G. Frommer New developments in knowledge-based machine translationSergei Nirenberg Culture in the language class: Videos to bridge the gapRicardo M. Paiva Using unification grammars for analysis and synthesisMargaret King Testing and technology in Germany revisited: What is left? What can be hoped for?Reinhold Freudenstein New directions of machine translationMakato Nagao Machine translation: Achievements, problems, promiseWinfred P. Lehmann Language teaching technology: A low-tech viewStephen Krashen Appendix: Three historical notesG. Richard Tucker and Michael Zarechnak