Catalogos

Wesley-Longman, 1996.
Shohamy, E., The Power of Tests
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/intl/elt/podcasts/aaal07/shohamy_poweroftests.mp3
Chapelle, C. & Jamison, J., Three Challenges in English Assessment
http://www.longmanusahome.com/images/stories/monographs/challenges_in_assessment.pdf
Del Vecchio, A. & Guerrero,M., The Handbook of English Language Proficiency Testshttp://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/eacwest/elptests.htm
what are proficiency tests and why are they important? Well, to begin with, proficiency tests give us a general picture of our students’ knowledge and ability. They don’t measure students’ progress, for example, in a particular language course. This is in contrast to achievement tests, which tend to be course-specific, and which check whether students havemastered specific content, or have acquired certain skills taught during a course.
Proficiency tests measure the general language ability or proficiency of any student. No matter where students might be or what type of language program they might be enrolled in, a proficiency test will tell us the general language level of all of those students.
Proficiency tests are widely used because they allowus to test large numbers of students and compare them to each other.
So, as I mentioned before, it doesn’t matter what country a person is from, or what language course a student might be taking. Proficiency tests give one general language measurement for everyone.
http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/general-english/index.html
http://www.ielts.org/default.aspx
Different proficiencytestsStudents take different proficiency tests, depending largely on what country they live in and what their future plans are. Countries with a focus towards British English tend to use the Cambridge First Certificate of English (FCE) or the Preliminary English Test (PET), both from Cambridge, or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Countries with a focus | |

to the UnitedStates, or students who wish to attend university in the United States, must take the TOEFL® or Test of English as a Foreign Language, although the IELTS is gaining popularity in the United States as well. |
Reading sections on proficiency tests
Most proficiency examinations contain a reading section. This section measures students’ general reading ability at a particular level and with aparticular type of text. Students are asked to demonstrate the same reading skills and strategies we have been focusing on in this module, including the following:
Global comprehension strategies | More detailed comprehension |
* reading for gist * identifying main ideas * identifying general information | * reading for details * reading for specific information * makinginferences * identifying tone and opinion * predicting * guessing vocabulary from context * summarizing |
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Text types on proficiency tests (Page 5 of 9) |

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|   | | As we saw in the previous lessons, the reading strategies listed here can be applied to different kinds of texts, for different purposes. Proficiency tests usually feature a particularkind of text type, depending on the exam. Notice in these examples the different kinds of texts used on two important proficiency tests. | |
The Test of English as a Foreign Language® Click here for an example from the TOEFL® test. You can see by the title of the text and the type of vocabulary that this is an academic text. The TOEFL® features almost exclusively general academic texts, becausethe test is used to determine students’ readiness to enter universities in the United States. The First Certificate Exam Click here for an example from the FCE. You can see that this text is quite different from the first. It is a good example of a newspaper or magazine article that could be used to test general reading skills on the First Certificate of English exam |
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