Assessing English for Professional Purposes

Ute Knoch is an Associate Professor in Language Testing at the University of Melbourne, Australia.Susy Macqueen is a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the Australian National University.

• IntroductionChapter 1 – Scope Chapter 2 – Construct Chapter 3 – Needs Chapter 4 – Development Chapter 5 – Validity Chapter 6 – Policy ConclusionReferencesIndex

"In what I believe is the first major book devoted to the assessment of languages for specific purposes in nearly twenty years, Ute Knoch and Susy Macqueen have added depth and detail to fundamental concepts, including the scope of the specific purpose language enterprise, the analysis of needs, aspects of test development explicitly unique to specific purposes, the validity of scores in relation to the target domain and uses, and language-associated assessment policies. Their discussion of "Codes of Relevance" in language assessment for professional purposes is particularly enlightening, moving from very specific professional registers to Lingua Franca and standard varieties, related to the density of specialist knowledge required for communication. Throughout the book, Knoch and Macqueen conceptualize language assessments for professional purposes as tools for risk management: risks to test takers, to fellow professionals, to clients and consumers, and to society more generally. This book will be welcomed by researchers and practitioners in specific purpose language programs, assessment specialists for both specific and more general language use, and in post-graduate programs in applied linguistics and language teaching."Dan Douglas, Iowa State University, USA