Book Review: Local Language Testing: Design,Implementation,and Development

Locally developed tests measure the language ability or construct of local interest. They are extremely useful if local needs are unlikely to be met by other language proficiency tests (e.g., a large-scale language test). Although large-scale tests have continued to play a crucial role in determining whether students have achieved the admission requirements for language proficiency set by the local institution, the limitations of these tests are also well recognized (Read, 2015). As a field currently dominated by research on large-scale commercial tests and classroom-based tests, local language testing research in the published literature remains less conspicuous. Local Language Testing: Design, Implementation, and Development by Slobodanka Dimova, Xun Yan, and April Ginther has provided local language testing program practitioners and researchers with an excellent resource for development and use of their local language tests. All the major issues in test design, implementation, and development are well developed throughout the chapters of the book.

Chapter 1 defines the broader context of local tests, which are not only confined to the local instructional context, but can also be extended to a wider educational context based on their values. The chapter then illustrates the motivation for developing local tests in three different educational settings and provides an overview of three local tests for various academic purposes. The chapter also presents a detailed account of the benefits that local tests can bring to local programs.

Chapter 2 highlights the advantage of local tests in that they can reflect the characteristics of different contexts and serve different educational purposes. The chapter provides examples of the different uses of English in anglophone and non-anglophone contexts and examples of how local tests deliver valuable data for decision making. The chapter then continues to argue that owing to insufficient information provided by large-scale tests, local tests have provided multiple extended purposes. In the case of local tests, not only can they provide information about language construct, but test scores from these tests can also deliver valuable data for decision making (e.g., screening, placement, and/or diagnosis) and research purposes.

Chapters 3 to 5 discuss issues related to local test development. While Chapter 3 presents the overall test development process, Chapter 4 focuses on tasks, and Chapter 5 emphasizes the role of test delivery methods. The chapters provide detailed information concerning the resources needed when developing, administering, and maintaining local tests and emphasize that the unique local values and needs determine the entire test development cycle. After a brief history of test-task development in language testing and a general survey of test tasks, various approaches to delivering local tests are introduced, together with their challenges and opportunities.

The authors point out that following a prescribed method for local test development is difficult and provide a handy example to illustrate the actual practices in developing a local test. Whereas introductory language testing books tend to focus on the techniques for task design, this book introduces a wide range of test tasks most suitable for test-takers’ language performance in various local testing contexts. It does not simply touch on essential topics in task development, but it carefully aligns different tasks with many possible local testing scenarios. Readers are prompted to select the test delivery method, “traditional, digital, and hybrid” before implementing their tests because delivery methods can determine the task design, test administration, and maintenance.

Chapters 6 and 7 guide local test developers through scaling and rater training for performance-based tests. Chapter 6 starts by introducing a variety of rating scales from a historical point of view and then discusses different rating scale types and approaches to their development. The authors recommend that three major elements be carefully considered: alignment between theory and scale, accuracy of discriminating test-takers’ levels, and scale usability for raters. Chapter 7, which addresses rater training, underlines the essence of involving teachers in the rating process, although their involvement may bring about some challenges. Teachers may be familiar with the local contexts, but they need to increase their language assessment literacy. The chapters provide a fine-grained but straightforward introduction to an inventory of rater effects and their impact on test scores. Numerous concrete examples are presented to illustrate the optimal rater training practices that emphasize rater cognition, the importance of benchmarks, and ongoing training.

Chapter 8 covers issues related to test data collection and administration, which include the collection, storage, and safeguarding of test data, the development of a test management system, and the utilization of test data. Unlike the data development and presentation stages discussed in Chapters 3 and 5, test data collection and administration is the data access stage. The chapter shows examples of how the application of digital technology can lead to innovative and improved local test databases. Databases are important because not only are they used to report test results to various stakeholders, they can also be used in test analysis for improvement, quality control, and program evaluation purposes. As a large amount of data could be generated from local tests, test practitioners should also look into utilizing the data for various research purposes.

It is interesting to note that the final chapter includes the authors’ reflections on their testing practices and recommendations for future test developers. They share the lessons they learned through their testing experiences in order to provide a head start for new local test development endeavors.

Overall, this book is a first-rate introduction to local language test design, implementation, and research, with a number of admirable qualities. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize the importance of testing the construct and language ability based on local needs and value. More and more institutions around the world are likely to move forward to aligning their tests with their local educational contexts, while large-scale tests have been drawing constant debates about their predictive power. In this book, the majority of the local test examples and test tasks derive from various educational contexts (e.g., entry-level proficiency testing, placement testing, international teaching assistant testing, writing assessment, and program evaluation), and the authors carefully consider multiple and complementary local purposes, such as placement, achievement, and diagnosis. The examples illustrate the connections between different local tests and their educational settings and how the test scores and data could be used for various purposes. Although most examples are in tertiary English for Academic Purposes (EAP) contexts, where local tests are most likely needed, the steps introduced can be easily applied in other local classroom assessment contexts. The book is not only useful for the major English-speaking universities, but the underlying issues the book sets out undoubtedly address much broader concerns.

Furthermore, as the authors of this book rightly point out, one of the most important features that distinguishes a local test from a large-scale commercial test is that the development of a local test must rely on local expertise. Given that many local language test developers may lack the background knowledge to design a useful and valid test, this book is a timely reference for them, as it encompasses the most important yet basic language testing theories and practical aspects of test development. Instead of using complicated technical terminology, the book presents the fundamental testing principles in layman’s terms, and readers can hardly see any statistics, language models, linguistic terms, and frameworks. It is surprising that the terms “reliability” and “validity”, a staple in almost every language testing book, are rarely mentioned in the entire book. Undoubtedly, the majority of language teachers and educators would most likely deepen their understanding of the advantage of local tests and become more confident in designing tests with representations of local contexts and values.

In summary, this is an informative, up-to-date, and easy-to-access book. Given that the three authors are all test directors in their own institutions, it enables the readers to obtain first-hand “insider” knowledge about the complicated issues involved in test development, administration, and maintenance. As anticipated by the authors, this book is likely to appeal to the general interest of various stakeholders and researchers involved in local language programs and evaluation.