Home
      Barker, F. 2010. ‘How can corpora be used in language testing?’ in The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, pp. 633-645
      Book editor(s): O'Keeffe, A. and M. McCarthy.
      ISBN: 9780415464895
      Summary: This chapter considers how corpora can be used in the field of language testing. Referred to as Language Testing and Assessment (LTA), this field is concerned with measuring the language proficiency of individuals in a variety of contexts and for a range of purposes, assessing language knowledge, performance or application.
      Country of research: various
      Learners' background: various
      Entered by: University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations
      Vidakovic, I. and F. Barker. 2010. ‘Use of words and multi-word units in Skills for Life Writing examinations’. Cambridge ESOL: Research Notes 41: 7-14
      URL: http://cambridgeesol.org/rs_notes/rs_nts41.pdf
      Summary: The authors investigate the lexical development of L2 learners of English using written responses to Skills for Life writing examinations across five proficiency levels.
      Country of research: United Kingdom
      Learners' background: various
      Entered by: University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations
      Vidakovic, I. and F. Barker. 2010. ‘Lexical development across second language proficiency levels: a corpus-informed study’ in Language, Learning & Context: Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics. London, UK: Scitsiugnil Press, pp. 143–146
      Editor(s): Harris, A. and A. Brandt.
      Country of research: United Kingdom
      Learners' background: various
      Entered by: University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations
      Salamoura, A., N. Saville, F. Barker and J. Harrison.. 2009-2012. ‘English Profile Network’.
      Funding body: European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme
      Summary: The English Profile Network project is a collaborative network of interdisciplinary research, consultation and publication designed to enhance the learning, teaching and assessment of English worldwide, with the collective goal being the development and dissemination of Reference Level Descriptors for English for the CEFR.
      URL: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/eve/alfresco/n/browse/workspace/SpacesStore/9a87f790-e30f-11de-8560-e959a3f6ec0c
      Entered by: University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations
      Taylor, L. and F. Barker. 2008. ‘Using corpora for language assessment’ in Encyclopaedia of Language and Education. New York: Springer, pp. 241-254
      Book editor(s): Hornberger, N.H. and E. Shohamy.
      ISBN: 978-0-387-32875-1 (Print) 978-0-387-30424-3 (Online)
      Summary: In this chapter Lynda Taylor and Fiona Baker illustrate how the field of corpus linguistics has become an important and relevant source of accurate language data which is useful for constructing tests based on scientific and empirical language documentation.
      Learners' background: various
      Institutional level: tertiary
      Entered by: University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations
      Barker, F., S. McKenna, S. Murray and I. Vidakovic. 2007. ‘Overview of FCE and CAE review project research’. Cambridge ESOL: Research Notes 30: 31-34
      URL: http://www.cambridgeesol.org/rs_notes/rs_nts30.pdf
      Summary: Fiona Barker, Steve Murray, Stephen McKenna and Ivana Vidakovic outline a range of other research and stakeholder projects undertaken within the FCE and CAE Review Project.
      Entered by: University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations
      Barker, F. and S.D. Shaw. 2007. ‘Linking language assessments for younger learners across proficiency levels (Phase 1)’. Cambridge ESOL: Research Notes 28: 14-18
      URL: http://www.cambridgeesol.org/rs_notes/rs_nts28.pdf
      Summary: Fiona Barker and Stuart Shaw’s article reports on an ongoing and long-term study to locate the three levels of YLE onto a common scale, thereby providing empirical validation for the vertical equating of levels
      Entered by: University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations
      Barker, F. 2006. ‘Corpora and language assessment: Trends and prospects’. Cambridge ESOL: Research Notes 26: 2-4
      URL: http://www.cambridgeesol.org/rs_notes/rs_nts26.pdf
      Summary: Fiona Barker outlines the growth in the existence and use of corpora for language assessment and describes a range of current corpusrelated activities before looking to future applications of this field for language testers, both within Cambridge ESOL and more widely
      Entered by: University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations