Reconsidering Context in Language Assessment

<p>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.</p> <p><strong>Introduction</strong></p><p>Theory, research, reflection, and action: What is this book about?</p><p>Janna Fox and Natasha Artemeva</p><p>Part I </p><p>Building Foundations for Transdisciplinary Dialogue: </p><p>New Directions in Language Assessment Research</p><p>Chapter One</p><p>The problem of context in language assessment: Validity, social theories, and a transdisciplinary research agenda</p><p>Janna Fox and Natasha Artemeva</p><p>Chapter Two</p><p>Validity as an evolving rhetorical art: Context and consequence in assessment</p><p>Janna Fox with Natasha Artemeva</p><p>Chapter Three</p><p>Unpacking the conundrum of context in language assessment: Why do social theories matter?</p><p>Janna Fox and Natasha Artemeva</p><p>Chapter Four</p><p>The contributions of language assessment research: </p><p>Evolving considerations of context, constructs, and validity</p><p>Janna Fox with Ana Lúcia Tavares Monteiro and Natasha Artemeva</p><p>Part II</p><p>Transdisciplinary research in practice: Building connections</p><p>Chapter Five</p><p>Clarifying the testing of aural/oral proficiency in an aviation workplace context:</p><p>Social theories and transdisciplinary partnerships in test development and validation</p><p>Ana Lúcia Tavares Monteiro and Janna Fox</p><p>Chapter Six</p><p>Validation of a rating scale in a post-admission diagnostic assessment: </p><p>A Rhetorical Genre Studies perspective</p><p>Janna Fox and Natasha Artemeva</p><p>Chapter Seven</p><p>Social theories and transdisciplinarity: Reflections on the learning potential of three technologically mediated learning spaces</p><p>Peggy Hartwick and Janna Fox</p><p>Part III</p><p>Transdisciplinarity in practice: Moving the research agenda forward</p><p>Chapter Eight</p><p>Language assessment in the wild</p><p>Janna Fox with Natasha Artemeva</p>