Setting Performance Standards in Europe : The Judges’ Contribution to Relating Language Examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference Hardback

by Spiros Papageorgiou

Part of the Language Testing and Evaluation series

Hardback

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Description

This publication was awarded the Jacqueline Ross TOEFL Dissertation Award in 2009. Since its publication in 2001, the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) has been the most frequently-cited performance standard in language testing in Europe.

To help test providers and users with score interpretation in relation to the CEFR levels, the Council of Europe published the â€˜Manual for relating language examinations to the CEFRâ€™.

Even though the linking process set out in the Manual is primarily based on judgements by trained participants, judgement-making in this context remains largely unexplored.

The research presented in this book addresses this issue by employing quantitative and qualitative methods.

Despite the judgesâ€™ good understanding of how language ability progresses from lower to higher CEFR levels, it was found that describing test content and examinee performance was not without problems and decision-making was affected by a number of factors that were irrelevant to the judgement task.

The results provide a better understanding of judgement-making during the CEFR linking process, which has important implications for examination providers and users of CEFR-aligned test scores.