Most scholars consider the birth of modern language testing as a field of study to be the year 1961 with the publication of Robert Lado’s book Language Testing and John Carroll’s chapter ‘Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing’. In the decades since it has grown in scope into a deeper and wider theoretical and intellectual field of study. The intellectual growth has come with the birth of psychometrics, specifically, in using statistical analyses for test development and research; with ideas from linguistics, in developing language tests that are communicatively oriented; with ideas from ethics, specifically, in developing qualities, codes, and standards so that tests are fair and just. This has been coupled with the growth of the field into a billion-dollar worldwide enterprise partly fuelled by the practical need to assess the English language ability of test-takers who want to study at English-medium universities or work in offices that mainly use English for communication.
This new four-volume collection from Routledge captures this burgeoning field by offering a cogent and comprehensive state-of-the-art coverage of the very best material. The volumes have been conceptualized both as a scholarly contribution in terms of theories and research as well as a practical guide in terms of test development in the field of language testing and assessment.