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If Language Is a Complex Adaptive System, What Is Language Assessment?
Author(s) -
Mislevy Robert J.,
Yin Chengbin
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00543.x
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , psychology , interactionism , trait , language assessment , cognitive science , linguistics , epistemology , cognitive psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , mathematics education , philosophy , programming language
Individuals’ use of language in contexts emerges from second‐to‐second processes of activating and integrating traces of past experiences—an interactionist view compatible with the study of language as a complex adaptive system but quite different from the trait‐based framework through which measurement specialists investigate validity, establish reliability, and ensure fairness of assessments. This article discusses assessment arguments from an interactionist perspective. We argue that the familiar concepts and methods of assessment that evolved under a trait perspective can be gainfully reconceived in terms of the finer‐grained perspective of interactionism, and we illustrate how key ideas relate to familiar practices in language testing.