Elana Shohamy

In this chapter I discuss current uses of language tests in education and society, arguing that tests have become primary tools used by policy makers to resolve and reform educational, political, and social problems. Specifically, I address two areas where this is happening: (1) in the realm of education, through the introduction of the No Child Left Behind tests in the USA, intended to reform education and resolve low school achievements; and (2) in the realm of society, through the increasing use of language tests for granting citizenship and thus, using tests to settle the complex set of issues related to migration. Relying on empirical research, I point to the length of time it takes immigrants to achieve academic language proficiency in schools and the continued role of L1; I argue that the use of such tests is unjust, unethical, and discriminatory and leads to marginalization and expulsion of people, suppression of diversity, and forced monolingualism. Further, these tests do not accurately represent current understanding of the language constructs of immigrants, who continue to negotiate and make meaning multilingually. I end the chapter with a call for the creation of language tests that are both in line with broader and more realistic language constructs, incorporate multilingualism. and multimodal realities, and also address the misuses of tests in order to lead to inclusion, participation, and recognition, especially given the ramifications of tests in creating de facto language policie

Languages are acquired in various contexts at homes, at the workplace, in schools and ‘on the street’. A common situation is when the language(s) one acquire(s) in these contexts are not those needed to function in other contexts of education and society. One such case is that of immigration as immigrants do not have the proficiency of the language(s) used in the country they immigrated to. They are therefore faced with great difficulties to function in the new societies especially at work and in schools. Another situation is in countries consisting of a variety of different ethno-linguistic groups who use languages different than those used by the majority and which are most often considered the languages of power. These languages are often not considered ‘official’ or ‘national’ and do not have the prestige and status that the other language(s) have, resulting in difficulties for its members. It should be noted that even in situations when languages are considered ‘official’ there is no guarantee that their speakers have any rights. Alternatively, there are cases when languages which are not considered official may have strong power and visibility and their speakers may benefit from special privileges in the society, such as in the case of English in many countries nowadays. The gap between the language(s) one knows and those considered ‘powerful’ has major ramifications to the educational systems where the language(s) of power is/are used as the mediums of instruction, used by teachers, students, textbooks, tests, etc. The main implications are the prevention of students from the acquisition of school knowledge as these languages serve as medium of the acquisition of academic

... Shohamy, E.(2006). Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. ... Shohamy,E.(2008b). Language policies and language realities in Israel: A critical review. In A. Stavans & I. Kupferberg (Eds.), Studies in language and language education. ...

1. Introduction Tests are powerful devices as they can determine the future of individuals and programs. Tests are therefore used by those who recognize their power for a variety of purposes, goals and agenda and not necessarily to measure knowledge. Tests are used for creating policies, for introducing new curricula and programs, for defining knowledge, for motivating students to learn and teachers to teach (Shohamy 1994, 1996, 1997). This may be the reason why external tests, those produced by testing agencies and Ministries of Education, get much attention from researchers and test developers. But there are other types of tests, those that are used in the classroom, serve important roles in teaching and learning, yet are being ignored and overlooked. These classroom tests may not have so much power as external tests do as they do not have such significant impact on test takers' lives, but still play an important role in the process of learning. Classroom tests have other traits, other powers, in that they can benefit the instructional process and are extremely useful for teaching and learning. Thus, while external tests are powerful devices that can lead to high stake decisions, tests that are used in the classroom are of lower stakes in terms of their impact on individual lives as they often do not lead to decisions beyond the classroom boundaries. They are nevertheless beneficial from a pedagogical perspective. The lack of attention to classroom tests is an interesting phenomenon as students are constantly subject to a large number of classroom tests during their schooling while they only rarely take external tests. After all, it is in the classroom where there is a vibrant and dynamic testing culture. It is where tests are used on an on-going basis as part of the learning and teaching process. It is where quizzes, tests and examinations are used for purposes of providing feedback, assigning grades and conducting evaluations. It is where tests are used by teachers to assess their students, to find out what they have learned to provide them with diagnostic feedback as to the quality and effectiveness of their learning. It is also where teachers obtain information about the effectiveness of their teaching. It is where a variety of assessment tools and devices such as assignments, projects, portfolios, self assessment and other creative procedures are constantly used for multiple of purposes. And it is where tests and quizzes are administered for assessing periodical progress, for obtaining summative information at the completion of teaching units and end of semesters. While a single classroom test cannot determine whether a student will be accepted or rejected to a certain program or whether s/he will enter a specific level of learning, it should also be realized that the cumulative effect of a number of classroom tests can lead to a final score that can eventually lead to a high stake decision as well. Yet, in spite of these varied purposes and uses of classroom tests throughout the whole education process, only external tests draw the attention of test developers and researchers. Thus, tests such as matriculation examinations in many countries, entrance exams to different programs and graduation tests are the focus of research, theory, development and topics of discussions and debates while classroom tests are being ignored. This holds true for both general testing and language testing. In language testing, for example, it is rare to find any article or piece of research that addresses the issues and uses of language tests in the classroom as most of the energy is devoted to the powerful high stake external tests. The lack of classroom testing practices has lead to the situation where theories, procedures and findings from external testing are wrongly applied in language testing in the classroom. Thus, there is hardly any knowledge about classroom tests, how they are used, by whom, for what, when and why. …

Language testing is concerned with the measurement of language knowledge. Language knowledge is the trait and how we go about measuring it is the method. Trait involves the ‘what’, i.e., the domain of language knowledge, and method involves the ‘how’, the appropriate procedures for measuring language knowledge. It is the complexity of the language trait that creates a need for a special discipline called language testing, for there is still no full understanding of what is involved in knowing a language. In constructing language tests, it is essential therefore to have a defined curriculum or set body of knowledge from which testers determine what to test. At the same time it is important to apply appropriate psychometric criteria to assure that tests constructed from such definitions are test-proof, that is, reliable and valid. Most of the work in language testing theory focuses on these two areas - the definitions of what it means to know a language and the appropriate procedures for measuring it. Thus, language testers have devoted much time and effort to defining the construct of language knowledge, as according to Spolsky (1968) “Fundamental to the preparation of valid tests of language proficiency is the theoretical question of what does it mean to know a language” (p. 79). A clear definition and identification of the structure of language enable language testers to design testing procedures that will match such descriptions as these will have direct consequences on the construct validity of language tests.

Similar to most countries in the world today, English in Israel plays a major role, both as a global and a local language in multiple domains such as business, academia, media, and education, as well as in daily interactions. English is the language of texts that students are required to read in academia in most disciplines; it is a language frequently “peppered” in Hebrew oral interactions, especially by youth in urban spaces; it is a language widely used in the cyber space and the one used in global corporations and high-technological companies; it is also a language heard in most films and television programs accompanied by translations but no dubbing. Finally, it is a language that all students are required to learn from a very early age of elementary school and through the end of secondary school; in addition, a high level of English proficiency is required for admission into higher education institutions. English is the language that is widely displayed in public spaces, at times along with Hebrew and more rarely with Arabic; English is to be found also as a single language in names of shops, advertisements, names of buildings, commercials, announcements, and instructions. According to a study by Ben Rafael, Shohamy, Amara, and Trumper-Hecht (2006) that documented the languages displayed in public spaces (e.g., linguistic landscape), in Israel English is displayed almost as frequently as Hebrew, the dominant and official language, in areas where Jews reside. This is in stark contrast to the absence of English in public places in towns and villages where Arabs live; in these areas, Arabic, the other official language of Israel, is the main language of communication as well as the medium of instruction in all Arab schools. Arabic in these areas is dominant in public spaces, along with Hebrew; yet English is hardly to be found. The patterns

5 Assessment in multicultural societies: Applying democratic principles and practices to language testing Elana Shohamy Introduction: The power of tests This chapter will discuss dimensions of the power of language tests and their special roles in multicultural societies in which ...

Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery Elana Shohamy and Durk Gorter eds. Introduction Elana Shohamy and Durk Gorter Part I: Theoretical Perspectives Linguistic Landscaping and the Seed of the Public Sphere Florian Coulmas, Prolegomena to a Sociolinguistic Theory of Public Signage Bernard Spolsky A Sociological Approach to the Study of Linguistic Landscapes Eliezer Ben-Rafael Language Economy and Linguistic Landscape Jasone Cenoz and Durk Gorter Framework for the Linguistic Analysis of Linguistic Landscapes Thom Huebner Language Ecology and Linguistic Landscape Analysis Francis M. Hult Part II: Methodological Issues Authorship in the Linguistic Landscape: A Multimodal-Performative View David Malinowski A Mapping Technique and the Linguistic Landscape Monica Barni and Carla Bagna What's in a Name? Classification of Proper Names by Language Loulou Edelman Part III: Language Policy Issues Rules and Regulations in Linguistic Landscaping: a Comparative Perspective Peter Backhaus State Ideology and Linguistic Landscape: a Comparative Analysis of (Post)communist Belarus, Czech Republic and Slovakia Marian Sloboda Language Ideology and Linguistic Landscape: Language Policy and Globalization in a Regional Capital of Ethiopia Elizabeth Lanza and Hint Woldemariam Local Policy Modeling the Linguistic Landscape Silvia Dal Negro Part IV: Identity and Awareness Languages on Display: Indexical Signs, Identities and the Linguistic Landscape of Taipei Melissa L. Curtin Constructing National Identity in Mixed Cities in Israel: Arabic on Signs in the Public Space of Upper Nazareth Nira Trumper-Hecht Linguistic Landscape and Language Awareness Diane Dagenais, Daniele Moore, Cecile Sabatier, Patricia Lamarre and Francoise Armand Tourism and Representation in the Irish Linguistic Landscape Jeffrey Kallen Part V: Extensions and the Way Forward Science and the Linguistic Landscape: A Genre Analysis of Representational Wall Space In a Microbiology Laboratory David I. Hanauer Linguistic Landscapes and the Transgressive Semiotics of Graffiti Alastair Pennycook Linguistic Landscape as an Ecological Arena: Modalities, Meaning, Negotiation, Education Elana Shohamy and Shoshi Waksman

You will receive two test papers. Paper One tests your knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. Paper Two tests your ability in reading. There is a time limit for each of the two papers. You must stop working when the time has finished. You will not be given additional time. Questions that are unanswered are considered incorrect. Therefore, it is important to work quickly. Do not spend too much time on any one question.

Cosmetic surgery has become a widespread phenomenon in the last decades, especially in Colombia where a large number of women undergo it every year. This surgical boom is reflected in several Linguistic Landscape resources including the internet, where a growing number of cosmetic surgery centers advertise their procedures. Particularly common among these procedures is breast augmentation, which many Colombian women have at a young age. This article reports on a study which drew on critical linguistic landscape and feminist theories to explore how local cosmetic surgery websites contribute to the commodification of women’s breasts, and its implications for users of these websites. Data collected for this study included text and images from 12 local websites advertising cosmetic surgery in Colombia, including breast augmentation. Data analysis showed that these websites contributed to the commodification of women’s bodies by using a series of ideological mechanisms. Implications for users of these public spaces include asking critical questions about these websites and becoming more socially active in their consumption.

The article reports the results of a study which examined the validity of two oral language tests - one direct and one semi-direct. While concurrent validity of the two types of tests (as obtained via correlations in a number of earlier studies) was high, a variety of qualitative analyses indicated that the two tests differed in a number of aspects. Differences were found in the elicitation tasks (in the number and types of functions and topics) and in the language samples obtained (in communicative strategies and in the discourse features). Conclusions are drawn regarding the need to validate tests from multiple perspectives.

This book is a comprehensive guide to research methods in second language and bilingualism. Based on a set of four research parameters, it discusses the development of research questions and hypotheses, naturalistic and experimental research, data ...

... prone to attempt to use the approved Hebrew words, seeing that most advanced textbooks used at the universities are in English, the Eng-lish words easily slip into academic scientific discourse. Even if the terminological innovations of the Hebrew Language Acad-emy were to ...

Second language assessment is concerned with procedures and techniques for measuring second language knowledge. Thus, the main focus of the field has been the definition of second language knowledge and the design of assessment procedures that match such definitions. While the field is generally known as ‘language testing’ it is also referred to as language assessment due to the recent trend to use multiple assessment procedures, and not just tests. Language testing/assessment is a dynamic field that holds annual conferences, including the Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC), publishes a journal, Language Testing, and many of whose practitioners belong to an international organization, the International Language Testing Association (ILTA).

The paper reports on trends in language testing taking place over the years and aim at critical perspectives of testing and promoting inclusion, equity and justice. It begins with critical theories by Messick, Foucault and Bourdieu, leading to critical language testing (CLT) which focused on consequences and uses of tests. Given the power of tests and their detrimental effects questions were raised regarding the impact of language tests on individuals and society. Based on theories of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics it was realized that bi‐multilingual students, especially immigrants in the first years of migration and beyond continue to use their first languages as resources for academic functioning, referring to it as their ‘full language repertoire’. These languages are needed especially when processing academic school tests, presented in the new language which students have not yet acquired. The paper reports on studies where immigrant students are tested in multilingual tests and reach significantly high scores compared to those tested only in the new language. In experiments, using a variety of tools, students showed positive attitude to the procedure as they felt recognition and respect. Multilingual tests need to be practiced in schools to avoid language rights violations. Multimodal assessment methods are also proposed as additional ways for expanding the underpinnings of language construct. Lastly, it is recommended that language testing researchers and practitioners conduct research to identify cases of violate language rights and suggest new assessment models to overcome it, leading to increased social justice.