Time: November 23, 2021, 10:00-11:30
Location: Foreign Language Building 326
Speaker: Professor Jin Yan
Speaker Profile: Professor and Doctoral Supervisor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has been the director of the National College English Test Committee since 2004; currently, she is also the president and one of the founders of the Asian Association for Language Assessment (AALA). She has been co-editor-in-chief of the open-access journal Language Testing in Asia since 2011, which is currently listed in ESCI. In addition, she has served on the editorial board of Language Testing, the most prestigious international journal in the field of language testing, since 2007, and currently serves on the editorial board of Language Assessment Quarterly, another important journal in the field of language testing, and more than a dozen other international and national journals.
Abstract: The “test specification” is the most important guiding document in the design and development of language tests, and is an important tool for ensuring test quality. This presentation begins with an explanation of “specification-driven” test design and development and analyzes the role of test specifications in large-scale and classroom testing. However, there are limitations in considering test specifications as mere technical guidance documents. Therefore, this report further analyzes the significance of test specifications for test validity and improving test redirection. The report promotes the concept of “effect-driven” test design and development (Fulcher & Davidson, 2007), suggesting the importance of thinking deeply about the purpose, use, and effects of tests at the outset of their development, and the importance of test specifications in establishing a link between instructional goals and test objectives to achieve test validity.
