The creation of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) has given rise to interest and debate among policy makers, testers, teachers and researchers alike in the reliability and feasibility of the assessment of second language (L2) proficiency. This volume brings together concrete ideas on identifying and measuring L2 proficiency from different branches of SLA research (psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, corpus-based, applied linguistics) to contribute to a deeper understanding of what it means to be proficient in an L2. The chapters introduce a wide range of tools that are innovative, reliable, and easy-to-use for the evaluation of learners' language level with respect to both productive and receptive skills and provide a variety of answers to the question of how to assess L2 proficiency in a valid, reliable and practical manner. The collection will therefore inspire language teachers, teacher trainers and language testing specialists and help them adapt their assessment practices when necessary, and will also be a valuable resource for postgraduate students and researchers.
Industry Reviews
This book is devoted to a neglected but important aspect in SLA research: proper assessment of participants' L2 proficiency. I therefore warmly recommend this book to both seasoned and novice SLA researchers. The book starts with an accessible introductory chapter on assessment of L2 proficiency in SLA research. Then follow ten chapters giving state-of-the-art information on a wide range of techniques forming part of proficiency assessment. Read this book if you wonder what proficiency assessment has to do with matters such as: CEFR levels, learner corpora and error tagging, comprehension restitution, translation recognition, fluency index, inter-rater agreement, phraseology, coefficient of variation, semantic priming, and online collaboration between researchers.
