Evaluating Language Assessments

Antony John Kunnan is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of English at the University of Macau. He is a specialist on language assessment and his research has focused on fairness and justice, statistical analysis, and ethics and public policy. He was the founding editor of Language Assessment Quarterly and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Asia TEFL.

"Kunnan’s thoughtfully-grounded principles and wide-ranging illustrative examples will quickly become—and long endure as—the landmark reference for all discussions of fairness and justice in language testing. The book establishes an innovative, rigorous, and thorough conceptual framework to evaluate the actual uses of language assessments in society."Alister Cumming, University of Toronto, Canada, and Beijing Foreign Studies University, China"Fairness and justice, the two important qualities of any assessment and assessment practice, seem to be suspect in most if not all assessments. This volume shows how we can apply ethical thinking to address these issues in actual practice. Antony Kunnan provides theory, practice and research to put forward his compelling arguments that make the book a superb resource for everyone concerned with assessment."Rama Mathew, Delhi University, India"This concise volume makes a timely contribution to the language assessment literature by building on Kunnan’s concerns for fairness and justice. In a systematic way, he takes the reader through a process of justification that can lead to clearer thinking about the use of assessments and to fairer outcomes."Nick Saville, University of Cambridge, UK

• Chapter 1 Language assessments: The need for evaluationChapter 2 Past frameworks and evaluationsChapter 3 Ethics-based approach to assessment evaluationChapter 4 Building the Fairness and Justice ArgumentChapter 5 Opportunity-to-LearnChapter 6 MeaningfulnessChapter 7 Absence of BiasChapter 8 Washback and ConsequencesChapter 9 Advancing fairness and justiceChapter 10 Applications and implications