Testing Academic Language Proficiency

This book focuses on the development of the process of teaching and assessing foreign language competence for study purposes in a pluricultural and plurilingual context. It addresses not only the individual who is learning the language for academic purposes (LAP), but also other stakeholders, like teachers, schools and universities, and external boards, such as examination boards for language testing. The book highlights an ongoing research project at the University of Parma, Italy, aimed at developing teaching programs and evaluative tools for language for academic purposes. Starting from a reflection upon the nature of language for study purposes stemming from the tradition of English for Academic Purposes, it describes the model of an LAP test implemented in Italian secondary schools and universities, and shows the findings concerning the performance in the test of both students whose mother tongue is Indo-European and those who speak non-Indo-European languages. Table of Contents Introduction Chapter One 1.1 International overview 1.2 Language for Academic Purposes in the English-speaking world 1.3 A wider view 1.4 Defining language for study purposes 1.4.1 Varieties of language 1.4.2 The process of academic acculturation 1.4.3 EAP approaches 1.5 What EAP is exactly 1.5.1 The implications of the distinction between EGAP/ESAP 1.5.2 Advantages and disadvantages of general study purpose and specific study purpose language 1.5.3 The Italstudio option 1.5.4 ItalstudioG content Chapter Two 2.1 Introduction 2.2 A definition 2.3 Type of test 2.4. Communicative language competences and cultural-subject knowledge 2.5 Background knowledge and language testing 2.6 The link between background knowledge and top-down processing 2.7 Cognitive demand in language testing 2.8 An inferential approach 2.9 Note-taking a high cognitive demand activity 2.10 Italstudio test structure 2.10.1 Overview 2.10.2 Candidate characteristics 2.10.3 Context validity 2.10.4 Test tasks 2.10.5 Towards the test Chapter Three 3.1 The Italstudio test 3.2 The creation of the Italstudio test for schools 3.3 The structure of Italstudio 3.3.1 The test format 3.4 A2 Level 3.4.1 Listening 3.4.2 Reading 3.4.3 Use of language 3.4.4 Writing 3.5 B1 and B2 levels 3.5.1 B1 level 3.5.2 B2 level 3.6 Marking scheme 3.7 Marking scheme and assessment 3.8 Designing the Italstudio test for university 3.8.1 Drafting the test 3.8.2 Experimental data 3.9 Piloting the Italstudio University test 3.9.1 The context 3.9.2 The Italstudio University test 3.9.3 Italstudio University and the CEFR 3.9.4 B1 level descriptors 3.9.5 Study skills syllabus 3.10 Administering the test 3.10.1 Target users 3.10.2 Timing 3.10.3 The structure of the test 3.10.4 Text and activity types 3.10.5 Guidelines for test administration 3.10.6 Assessment: procedures and criteria 3.10.7 Summary Table Chapter Four 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Context and methods: a statistical analysis of the experimental version 4.3 Context and methods: a statistical analysis of the 2011-2015 Italstudio tests 4.3.1 Findings 4.4. Conclusion Chapter Five 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Methods 5.3 Findings 5.4 Discussion Bibliography