This guide, designed to help language educators meet the needs of program evaluation and assessment often requested by their institutions, provides step-by-step advice to help educators conduct evaluation and assessment and to show how it can lead to meaningful programmatic change and provide useful data on which to base curricular decisions.

This innovative text presents an introduction to different facets of building and leading language education programs at the university level to meet the needs of students who are minority speakers of a heritage language (HL) – also known as community or home languages. Providing a unique synthesis of theory and empirical research, Sara Beaudrie and Sergio Loza authoritatively illustrate and guide the reader through the main issues that program directors face from the early stage of program conceptualization and creation through later stages of program management and evaluation. The book keys in on the diverse considerations and skills involved in this leadership work – including advocacy and fund-raising, placement, curriculum development and assessment, teacher preparation and student advocacy – and offers an array of practical advice and pedagogical features. This is an invaluable resource for advanced students and scholars of applied linguistics and education, as well as future and current language program administrators in institutions of higher education, for understanding the benefits of specialized HL courses, for blazing a trail in future research in this domain, and for forging a path to solidified institutional recognition and support for HL education.

This volume provides both practicing and aspiring Language Program Administrators with knowledge about the research and theory that underpin key topics in educational leadership, as well as practical guidance for the day-to-day management of language programs, including budgets, personnel, decision making, strategic planning, advocacy, and digital technologies. The volume brings together 46 authors and contributors with a vast array of experiences as administrators of English language teaching programs all over the world—in Asia; Australia; Europe; the Middle East; New Zealand; North, Central, and South America; South Africa; Turkey; and the United Kingdom. As the need for more qualified administrators and leaders has increased, more teacher education programs have added formal courses on leadership and program administration to their offerings. Educators teaching these courses will find this volume to be an excellent core text to support students in developing their knowledge of and skills for language program administration. All chapters are connected to the contemporary realities of language program administration, and they offer practical guidance to Language Program Administrators in ways that are adaptable to different administrative contexts globally.

Advocating an argument-based approach, Blended Language Program Evaluation presents a framework for planning, conducting, and appraising evaluation of blended language learning across three institutional levels, and demonstrates its utility and application in four case studies carried out in diverse international contexts.

Offers a wide-ranging overview of the issues and research approaches in the diverse field of applied linguistics Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field that identifies, examines, and seeks solutions to real-life language-related issues. Such issues often occur in situations of language contact and technological innovation, where language problems can range from explaining misunderstandings in face-to-face oral conversation to designing automated speech recognition systems for business. The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics includes entries on the fundamentals of the discipline, introducing readers to the concepts, research, and methods used by applied linguists working in the field. This succinct, reader-friendly volume offers a collection of entries on a range of language problems and the analytic approaches used to address them. This abridged reference work has been compiled from the most-accessed entries from The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (www.encyclopediaofappliedlinguistics.com), the more extensive volume which is available in print and digital format in 1000 libraries spanning 50 countries worldwide. Alphabetically-organized and updated entries help readers gain an understanding of the essentials of the field with entries on topics such as multilingualism, language policy and planning, language assessment and testing, translation and interpreting, and many others. Accessible for readers who are new to applied linguistics, The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics: Includes entries written by experts in a broad range of areas within applied linguistics Explains the theory and research approaches used in the field for analysis of language, language use, and contexts of language use Demonstrates the connections among theory, research, and practice in the study of language issues Provides a perfect starting point for pursuing essential topics in applied linguistics Designed to offer readers an introduction to the range of topics and approaches within the field, The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics is ideal for new students of applied linguistics and for researchers in the field.

"Testing in language programs is a core text for graduate and undergraduate teacher-training courses in language testing assessment. Ideal for both classroom use and personal reference, this book targets the need of those making both program-level (e.g. admissions, proficiency, and placement) as well as classroom-level testing decisions (e.g. assessing what students have learned through diagnostic and achievement testing)."--Back cover

Please glance over the questions that follow and read the answers to those that are of interest. Q: What does this manual do? A: This manual guides the user through designing an evaluation. A: Who can use it? A: Anyone interested or involved in evaluating professional trammg or inservice education programs. The primary users will be staff members who are doing their own program evaluation-maybe for the first time. (Experienced evaluators or other professional educators can find useful guides and worksheets in it.) Q: If I work through this manual, what will I accomplish? A: You will develop one or more evaluation designs, and perhaps you'll also use the designs to evaluate something to make it better or to document its current value. Q: What is an evaluation design? A: An evaluation design is a conceptual and procedural map for getting important information about training efforts to people who can use it, as shown in the graphic below.

The perception of a permanent enrollment crisis in US postsecondary foreign language education has shaped our profession’s image for an entire generation of educators. Over the past 30 years, this crisis rarely invited self-examination or inspired creativity. Instead, it was routinely attributed to external factors: shrinking budgets, unsympathetic administrators, disengaged students. This volume is refreshingly optimistic: After providing a nuanced picture of the complex enrollment situation and focusing on perceptions of language education among undergraduate students, the volume features an inspiring panorama of successful models that revitalized language programs at a wide range of institutions. The diversity of approaches to post-secondary language education in the United States featured in this volume highlights that there are no simple “one size fits all” solutions. To be transformational, initiatives need to be intimately calibrated to the evolving needs and desires of our institutions’ most important stakeholder: the student. Per Urlaub, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA, USA

This textbook is a practical guide to language test development for classroom use, educational program evaluation, placement at instructional levels, measurement and research. It has served for many years as a classic classroom textbook at both graduate and undergraduate university levels. This new edition makes it available once again at low cost for student use. It provides useful information about reliability and validity estimation and about test and questionnaire development for a variety of educational and evaluation purposes. It includes information useful for the development of both paper-and-pencil and computer-adaptive measurement instruments.