Language Assessment: A Linguametric Perspective

Abstract

Within the last few decades, there have been multidimensional advancements in language assessment. Some of the advancements have been in the direction of developing theoretical models of the construct of language ability, others in the line of measuring that construct, and still some others toward materializing the outcomes of measuring the defined construct. These developments can be attributed to 3 major areas of inquiry, namely, applied linguistics, psychometrics, and edumetrics. The purpose of this article is to make certain arguments about the necessity of an eagle's eye view, which I call linguametric perspective, on language assessment. More specifically, it is argued that (a) most of the developments in language assessment have been rooted in the aforementioned disciplines; (b) most language ability models have been based on intradisciplinary rather than interdisciplinary perspectives; (c) beyond intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary relations, certain supradisciplinary factors should also be included in the models of language assessment; and (d) some of the inadequacies of the existing models can be attributed to the ignorance of such interdisciplinary and supradisciplinary relations. Finally, a linguametric perspective is suggested and its applications to and implications for research are discussed.