Much of the recent debate that has surrounded the development and use of 'performance', or 'communicative' language tests has focused on a supposed trade-off between two sets of desirable qualities: correspondence between test tasks and test performance to nontest language use for content relevance; and reliability of scores derived from test performance. One area that has been of particular concern with performance tests is the potential variability in tasks and rater judgements, and this has been investigated in the language testing literature with two complementary approaches: generalizability the ory and many faceted Rasch modelling. GENOVA, which performs general izability theory analyses, estimates the relative contribution of variation in test tasks and rater judgements to variation in test scores. FACETS, which performs many faceted Rasch modelling, estimates differences in task difficulty and rater severity, and adjusts ability estimates of test takers, taking these differences into account. In this article we first discuss the design and development of a foreign language (Spanish) test battery that was designed for two purposes: first, to place University of California Education Abroad students into programmes at universities abroad that are appropriate for their level of language ability, and secondly to provide diagnostic information that will be useful for designing appropriate teaching and learning pro grammes for prospective education abroad students. The test battery consists of four subtests: reading, listening and note-taking, speaking, and writing. All subtests share a common theme or topic, and are interdependent. We then discuss the results of the GENOVA and FACETS analyses of the speaking subtest, based on a full field trial with a group of University of California undergraduate students who had been selected for participation in the Education Abroad Program. Finally, we discuss the implications of these results for the use of G-theory and many faceted Rasch modelling for the development of performance tests of foreign language ability.

This article examines language assessment from a critical perspective, defining critical in a manner similar to Pennycook (1999; 2001). I argue that alternative assessment, as distinct from testing, offers a partial response to the challenges presented by a critical perspective on language assessment. Shohamy’s (1997; 1999; 2001) critical language testing (CLT) is discussed as an adequate response to the critical challenge. Ultimately, I argue that important ethical questions, along with other issues of validity, will be articulated differently from a critical perspective than they are in the more traditional approach to language assessment.

Second language performance tests, through the richness of the assessment context, introduce a range of facets which may influence the chances of success of a candidate on the test. This study investigates the potential roles of Generalizability theory (G-theory) (Brennan, 1983; Shavelson and Webb, 1991) and Many-facet Rasch measurement (Linacre, 1989; Linacre and Wright, 1993; McNamara, 1996) in the development of such a performance-based assessment procedure. This represents an extension of preliminary investigations into the relative contributions of these procedures (e.g., Bachman et al., 1995) to another assessment setting. Data for this study come from a trial of materials from the access: test, a test of communicative skills in English as a Second Language for intending immigrants to Australia. The performances of 83 candidates on the speaking skills module were multiply rated and analysed using GENOVA (Crick and Brennan, 1984) and FACETS (Linacre and Wright, 1993). The advantages and specific roles of these contrasting analytical techniques are considered in detail in the light of this assessment context.

Summary We consider multi-layer network data where the relationships between pairs of elements are reflected in multiple modalities, and may be described by multivariate or even high-dimensional vectors. Under the multi-layer stochastic block model framework we derive consistency results for a least squares estimation of memberships. Our theorems show that, as compared to single-layer community detection, a multi-layer network provides much richer information that allows for consistent community detection from a much sparser network, with required edge density reduced by a factor of the square root of the number of layers. Moreover, the multi-layer framework can detect cohesive community structure across layers, which might be hard to detect by any single-layer or simple aggregation. Simulations and a data example are provided to support the theoretical results.

Portfolios have been used in a variety of ways for assessing student work. In education, generally, and more specifically in second language education, portfolios have been associated with alternative assessment (Darling‐Hammond, 1994; Hamayan, 1995; Shohamy, 1996; Wolf, Bixby, Glenn, & Gardener, 1991). This article defines alternative assessment as representing a paradigm and culture that is different from traditional testing, requiring a different approach to addressing the issues of validity and ethics. We present a framework that integrates a consideration of how power relations determine the ethics and validity of assessment inferences. We then apply that framework to the assessment of student portfolios in a master of arts in TESOL (MA TESOL) program.