Statistical analyses provide a set of tools for helping us to evaluate and improve the qualities of the tests we use, and to help us assure that we use these tests in ways that are valid and fair. The appropriate use of statistical procedures rests on an understanding of basic concepts and logic, as well as calculations of the statistics themselves. The first part of this book discusses the conceptual bases and logical foundations of language testing and measurement, as well as the basic statistical procedures that provide the foundation for the rest of the book.

Chapter 1 discusses the applied linguistic and measurement contexts that constitute the joint foundations of language assessment. Chapter 2 discusses procedures for describing the statistical properties of a set of test scores. Chapter 3 discusses procedures for calculating correlation coefficients, which can be used to investigate the relationship between two sets of test scores.