Description
This volume reconsiders the problem of context in language testing and other modes of assessment from the perspective of transdisciplinarity. Transdisciplinary assessment research brings together collaborators who draw on the strengths of their differing backgrounds and expertise in order to address high-stakes complex socially-relevant problems. Traditional treatments of context in language assessment research have generally been informed by individualist cognitive theories within measurement and psychometrics. The additive potential of alternative social theories, including theories of genre, situated learning, distributed cognition, and intercultural communication, has largely been overlooked. In this book, the benefits of socio-theoretical reconsiderations of context are discussed and further exemplified in transdisciplinary research studies that investigate the use of assessment in classroom and workplace settings. The book offers a renewed view of context in arguments for the validity of assessment practices, and will be of interest to assessment researchers, practitioners, and students in applied linguistics, education, educational psychology, language testing, and other related disciplines and fields.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Theory, research, reflection, and action: What is this book about?
Janna Fox and Natasha Artemeva
Part I
Building Foundations for Transdisciplinary Dialogue:
New Directions in Language Assessment Research
Chapter One
The problem of context in language assessment: Validity, social theories, and a transdisciplinary research agenda
Janna Fox and Natasha Artemeva
Chapter Two
Validity as an evolving rhetorical art: Context and consequence in assessment
Janna Fox with Natasha Artemeva
Chapter Three
Unpacking the conundrum of context in language assessment: Why do social theories matter?
Janna Fox and Natasha Artemeva
Chapter Four
The contributions of language assessment research:
Evolving considerations of context, constructs, and validity
Janna Fox with Ana Lúcia Tavares Monteiro and Natasha Artemeva
Part II
Transdisciplinary research in practice: Building connections
Chapter Five
Clarifying the testing of aural/oral proficiency in an aviation workplace context:
Social theories and transdisciplinary partnerships in test development and validation
Ana Lúcia Tavares Monteiro and Janna Fox
Chapter Six
Validation of a rating scale in a post-admission diagnostic assessment:
A Rhetorical Genre Studies perspective
Janna Fox and Natasha Artemeva
Chapter Seven
Social theories and transdisciplinarity: Reflections on the learning potential of three technologically mediated learning spaces
Peggy Hartwick and Janna Fox
Part III
Transdisciplinarity in practice: Moving the research agenda forward
Chapter Eight
Language assessment in the wild
Janna Fox with Natasha Artemeva
