M. Rafael Salaberry is Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Humanities in the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures at Rice University (USA).

Albert Weideman is Professor of Applied Language Studies and Research Fellow at the University of the Free State (South Africa).

Wei-Li Hsu is a Lecturer at the Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication, at Rice University (USA).

This innovative, timely text introduces the theory and research of critical approaches to language assessment, foregrounding ethical and socially contextualized concerns in language testing and language test validation in today's globalized world.

List of contributors

PART I THE ETHICAL CONTEXTUALIZATION OF VALIDITY

Chapter 1: Contexts, constructs, and ethics

M. Rafael Salaberry and Albert Weideman

Chapter 2: Validity and validation: an alternative perspective

Albert Weideman and Bart Deygers

PART II AGENCY AND EMPOWERMENT PROMPTED BY TEST ADEQUACY

Chapter 3: The racializing power of language assessments

Casey Richardson

Chapter 4: "It's not their English": narratives contesting the validity of a high-stakes test

Gordon Blaine West and Bala Thiruchelvam

Chapter 5: The ethical potential of L2 portfolio assessment: a critical perspective review

Mitsuko Suzuki

PART III SOCIOINTERACTIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON ASSESSMENT

Chapter 6: Portfolio assessment: facilitating language learning in the wild

Elisa Räsänen and Piibi-Kai Kivik

Chapter 7: The role of an inscribed object in a German classroom-based paired speaking assessment: does the topic card elicit the targeted speaking and interactional competencies?

Katharina Kley

Chapter 8: L1-L2 speaker interaction: affordances for assessing repair practices

Katharina Kley, Silvia Kunitz and Meng Yeh

Chapter 9: Yardsticks for the future of language assessment: disclosing the meaning of measurement

Albert Weideman

Index