Forty years of doing second language testing, curriculum, and research: So what?

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Dean Brown
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Curriculum Development ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Language Testing ◽  
Teaching English

I started out as a budding English as a second language (ESL) teacher in 1976 at UCLA where I went through the M.A. TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) and Applied Linguistics Ph.D. programs. Sadly, those two programs were ‘disestablished’ in 2014, which provides a stark lesson to any departments that think they are hot stuff thatnothing lasts forever. Nonetheless, my training in those programs provided me with an excellent start down three professional paths: second language testing, curriculum development, and research methods.

Language Testing-SLA Research Interfaces

1988 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 193-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyle F. Bachman
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Language Testing ◽  
Second Language Proficiency ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Longitudinal View

Language testing [LT] research and second language acquisition [SLA] research are often seen as distinct areas of inquiry in applied linguistics. To oversimplify slightly, SLA research takes a longitudinal view, concerning itself primarily with the description and explanation of how second language proficiency develops, while LT research typically observes a “slice of life”, and attempts to arrive at a more or less static description of language proficiency at a given stage of development.

scholarly journals Foreword

1989 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. vii-xi
Author(s):  
Robert B. Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Language Planning ◽  
Language Testing ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Education Planning ◽  
The Past

This tenth volume of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) concerns itself with a survey of applied linguistics broadly, as this series did in volume I and volume V. The changes which have occurred in the field generally over the past decade are impressive; indeed, a volume such as this one would have been quite impossible ten years ago. Some of the topics covered in this volume are ones to which this series has repeatedly returned—e.g., language planning, language-in-education planning, bilingualism; others are unique to this volume—e.g., language and aging, and still others represent sub-fields which have been treated previously but which have expanded significantly in the years since volume I was published—e.g., second-language acquisition, language testing.

Performance consistency in second language acquisition and language testing research: a conceptual gap

2001 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 442-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Douglas
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Language Testing ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Language Test ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Special Case

Arguing from the premise that a language test is a special case of a second language acquisition (SLA) elicitation device, I suggest that SLA and language testing share much common ground in terms of research methods, which have similar properties in that they are both used to make systematic observations of language performances from which inferences can be made about the state of a learner’s interlanguage ability underlying the performance. However, I also argue that whereas the concept of demonstrating validity and reliability has been integrated into how language testing research is conducted, SLA researchers have generally failed to recognize the need to demonstrate these qualities. I compare examples of SLA and language testing research articles in terms of their treatment of validity and reliability and argue: • that it is important for SLA researchers to provide evidence that the methods they employ to elicit data are appropriate for the purposes intended; • that the procedures provide stable and consistent data; and, consequently • that the interpretations they make of the results are justified.

scholarly journals Research Methods in Foreign/Second Language Didactics

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Andrzej Cirocki ◽  
Aleksandra Arceusz
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Teaching Literature ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
New Knowledge

This article provides an analytical overview of relevant research methods in applied linguistics significant to teaching practitioners. In the canon of language teaching literature, there are numerous volumes presenting insightful analyses of research into  English as a foreign or second language (EFL/ESL) context. This article seeks to familiarize English language practitioners with comprehensive, practical, and straightforward coverage of applied linguistics research within the three research paradigms of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. The twenty-first centurychallenges societies and systems with new demands and approaches, with schools and teachers being agents of those changes, responsible for their presentation, implementation and often evaluation. Teachers must have a good understanding of  such changes and should be prepared to put new knowledge into practice. This can be achieved when a teacher becomes a researcher, engaging themselves in various activities that lead to a better understanding of the processes, to reflection upon teaching, and finally, to the implementation of new practices: becoming researchers intheir own right.

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