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2 - Understanding Argument-Based Validity in Language Testing

from Part I - Basic Concepts and Uses of Validity Argument in Language Testing and Assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2021

By
Carol A. Chapelle  and
Hye-won Lee
Edited by
Carol A. Chapelle  and
Erik Voss
Carol A. Chapelle
Affiliation:
Iowa State University
Erik Voss
Affiliation:
Teachers College, Columbia University
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Summary

Argument-based validity has evolved in response to the needs of language testing researchers for a systematic approach to investigating validity of the language tests. Based on a collection of 51 recent books, articles, and research reports in language assessment, this chapter describes the fundamental characteristics of an argument-based approach to validity, which has been operationalized in various ways in language assessment. These characteristics demonstrate how argument-based validity operationalizes the ideals for validation presented by Messick (1989) and accepted by most language testers: that a validity argument should be unitary, but multifacted means for integrating a variety of evidence in an ongoing validation process. The chapter describes how validity arguments serve the multiple functions that language testers demand of their validation tools, and takes into account the concepts that are important in language testing. It distinguishes between two formulations of argument-based validity that appear in language testing to introduce the conventions used throughout the papers in the volume.

Keywords

argument-based validationlanguage testing validation researchtest developmentlanguage testers
Type
Chapter
Information
Validity Argument in Language Testing
Case Studies of Validation Research
 , pp. 19 - 44
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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