Routledge Applied Linguistics is a series of comprehensive textbooks, providing students and researchers with the support they need for advanced study in the core areas of English language and Applied Linguistics. Each book in the series guides readers through three main sections, enabling them to explore and develop major themes within the discipline. Section A, Introduction, establishes the key terms and concepts and extends readers' techniques of analysis through practical application. Section B, Extension, brings together influential articles, sets them in context, and discusses their contribution to the field. Section C, Exploration, builds on knowledge gained in the first two sections, setting thoughtful tasks around further illustrative material. This enables readers to engage more actively with the subject matter and encourages them to develop their own research responses. Throughout the book, topics are revisited, extended, interwoven and deconstructed, with the reader's understanding strengthened by tasks and follow-up questions. Language Testing and Assessment: introduces students to the key methods and debates surrounding language testing and assessment explores the testing of linguistic competence of children, students, asylum seekers and many others in context of the uses to which such research can be put presents influential and seminal readings in testing and assessment by names such as Michael Canale and Merrill Swain, Michael Kane, Alan Davies, Lee Cronbach and Paul Meehl, and Pamela Moss. The accompanying website to this book can be found at http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415339476/

I am Professor of Education and Language Assessment at the University of Leicester. Previously, I taught English as a Second Language in Cyprus, Greece and the Gulf. Before coming to Leicester I also taught at the Universities of Surrey and Dundee.

My main interests lie in the field of language testing and educational assessment. To discover more about language testing, you can visit my website at http://languagetesting.info. Here I maintain resources on the subject which complement the content of my books.

I have extensive experience of working on test design and development projects, including the design and creation of test specifications, item/task design and prototyping, item/task review procedures, pre-testing, test analysis and assembly, and the design of both paper and computer delivery systems. I have a particular expertise in the design and development of rating instruments for performance assessments, particularly those in the assessment of speaking and communication. I have also published many research papers in journals such as Language Testing, Applied Linguistics, System and Language Assessment Quarterly and Educational Theory and Philosophy. I also write on the philosophical, ethical and legal aspects of language testing and assessment, including test mandates, political agendas, and legal cases involving test use and interpretation.

Professionally, I have served on the boards of many organizations, such as the International Language Testing Organization (ILTA), of which I was President in 2006. I was Editor of the premier journal Language Testing from 2007 - 2015.