ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the challenges of assessing language proficiency. It discusses the limitations of instruments intended to assess language proficiency and how the information they produce needs to be interpreted judiciously in order to make sound decisions concerning specific students' English proficiency. The chapter provides educators with concepts and ideas that are relevant to reasoning about language assessment and to using language proficiency tests critically. It provides the following sections: The Challenges of Assessing Proficiency in English as a Second Language, Examining Language Proficiency Assessments, and Using and Obtaining Information on English Proficiency. The chapter discusses the elusiveness of the concept of language proficiency, the limitations of tests intended to measure English proficiency, and the ways in which inaccurate information about English proficiency may mislead educators in the decisions they make concerning ELL students. It also offers strategies educators can use to make content- and context-sensitive judgments about the English proficiency of their ELLs.
