Testing ESL Sociopragmatics

Testing of second language pragmatics has grown as a research area but still suffers from a tension between construct coverage and practicality. In this book, the authors describe the development and validation of a web-based test of second language pragmatics for learners of English. The test has a sociopragmatic orientation and strives for a broad coverage of the construct by assessing learners' metapragmatic judgments as well as their ability to co-construct discourse. To ensure practicality, the test is delivered online and is scored partially automatically and partially by human raters. We used the argument-based approach to validation, which showed that the test can support low-stakes decisions about learners' knowledge of sociopragmatics in English.

Autorentext

Carsten Roever is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Melbourne.
Catriona Fraser holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Melbourne.
Catherine Elder is the former director of the Language Testing Research Centre at the University of Melbourne.

Inhalt

Contents: Pragmatics - Interlanguage pragmatics - Sociopragmatics - Testing - Assessment - Validation - Web-based test - Argument-based validation - English as a second language.