What are the pros and cons of wordlist-based development of academic collocation tests?
Hang Nguyen

Academic collocations (e.g., empirical evidence, key element) are important as they occur in a wide range of registers and disciplines. Corpus-based word lists of academic collocations are valuable resources for EAP pedagogy, and one useful application of such word lists is for test development. The focus of this talk is designing the Academic Collocation Tests based on the Academic Collocation List (Ackermann & Chen, 2013). The six steps of creating the tests will be presented, which aim to lay the groundwork for further application of multiword-unit lists into developing tests. Benefits and challenges of wordlist-based test development will then be discussed, followed by implications for testing.

How to develop an integrated-writing test?
Aynur Ismayilli-Karakoç

Integrated writing (IW) tests or reading-writing tests are gaining popularity because they are claimed to be authentic and valid (Weigle, 2004). However, although IW tests aim to demarcate students' general academic preparedness levels for university, the majority of these tests are not strong enough for such purposes to meet the requirements of university courses. To understand the target language use (TLU) domain requirements, reading and writing requirements in first-year humanities and social sciences courses at VUW were analysed. Based on these requirements, an IW test was developed. The stages of test development, related challenges, and opportunities will be presented. Recommendations will be made for EAP teaching and IW testing.

Join via Zoom: https://vuw.zoom.us/j/6332241233