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This book explores the development of C-tests for providing efficient measures of foreign language proficiency in eight different languages: Arabic, Bangla, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Researchers report on how C-test principles were applied in creating the new language tests, with careful attention to language-specific challenges and solutions. The final, five-text C-tests in all languages demonstrated impressive psychometric qualities as well as strong relationships with criterion variables such as learner self-assessments and instructional levels. These test development projects provide new tests for use by foreign language researchers, and they demonstrate innovative and rigorous test development practices in diverse languages.

This book explores the notion of «validity evaluation» as a means for helping educators to ensure the utility and worth of their assessment practices. With a particular focus on foreign language testing, the author challenges assessment traditions and argues for a fundamental reconceptualization of assessments and their validation in language teaching and other educational settings. Following a critical review of test validity standards and methods within educational measurement, the author then proposes a comprehensive alternative approach to validation based upon program evaluation methodology. A report of a multi-year case study completes the volume, providing in-depth analyses of how validity evaluation methods were applied by foreign language educators in meeting the assessment needs of a German program at a US university.