6 - The impact of CALT
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010
Summary
Bennett, a measurement researcher and an enthusiastic advocate of technology, writes about the transformative impact of technology on large-scale educational assessment:
New technology will permit [a] transformation [in assessment] by allowing us to create tests that are more firmly grounded in conceptualizations of what one needs to know and be able to do to succeed in a domain; by making performance assessment practical and routine through the use of computer-based simulation, automatic item generation, and automated essay scoring; and by changing the ways in which we deliver, and the purposes for which we use, largescale tests.
(Bennett, 1999a, p. 11)The seeds for Bennett's enthusiasm about the transformative power of technology for assessment were planted much earlier, and many of these ideas have been hinted at by researchers in educational measurement for years (e.g., Bejar, 1985; Cole, 1993; Bejar & Braun, 1994). Although Bennett and other enthusiasts typically do not refer specifically to second language tests, they regularly include writing tests in their discussions. In reading these predictions, second language teachers, test developers, and researchers cannot help but consider whether or not our assessments are part of the revolution in assessment, and if so whether or not this revolution has happened, is in progress, or is yet to come.
In this chapter we will suggest that in second language assessment, despite the significant changes and advances made through the use of technology, the revolution portrayed by Bennett has not yet occurred.
Although automated scoring and computer-assisted test delivery are realities, we were unable to show evidence for performance assessment made practical through widespread use of simulation, authentic item generation, or significant changes in testing purposes through technology.
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- Assessing Language through Computer Technology , pp. 103 - 117Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
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