A Language Testing Handbook

Comprehensive and up-to-date, this book surveys all the major issues in the field of language testing, relating them to a wide range of test techniques, with due concern for both theory and practise. Dr Porter also gives a detailed treatment of test statistics, a feature absent from other language testing textbooks. Dr Porter provides both a general background to the subject, and clear accounts of central notions, such as validity, reliability, and practicability. Of particular benefit to the reader, is an extensive section on test techniques, from those appropriate for testing listening comprehension, to those designed for reading, writing, and the integrated sequences of activities. With a practical guide to crucial aspects of test development, and a brief review of some major tests, this aims to be the clearest, and the most wide-ranging book on the subject. This book is aimed at students and researchers in applied linguistics, teachers of English as a second or foreign language and teachers and researchers in modern languages.