ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how corpora can be used in the field of language testing. The general aim of language testing is to measure a latent trait in order to make inferences about an individual’s language ability. One useful way of thinking about testing language proficiency is to explore the essential principles, or test qualities, that underlie good assessment. The tasks used to assess language proficiency at any level should match the cognitive and psychological ability of the test taker as well as their linguistic knowledge; these are some of the test taker characteristics that influence how an individual performs on any test and which form part of a socio-cognitive framework for test development. Language testing occurs in a range of local, regional, national and international contexts, and language tests should take into account both the social context and the cognitive make-up of test takers and have various degrees of impact on them.
