This book presents an in-depth study of assessment innovation and its impact on teaching and
learning. The context is New Zealand and the focus is additional languages other than English
and the recent introduction of a radical new assessment of students' spoken proficiency called
interact. The book crosses the traditional theoretical and methodological boundaries associated
with language testing research which focuses on assessment performance and presents an
alternative approach where stakeholders become the centre of interest. It advances our
understanding of how assessment innovation impacts on two key groups - teachers and students in
schools - based on data collected from a substantial two-year research project. It presents an
account of these stakeholders' perceptions of the validity and usefulness of the new assessment
in comparison with the more traditional test that it has replaced.Assessing Foreign Language
Students' Spoken Proficiency makes an outstanding and original contribution to the field of
second and foreign language teaching providing a theory and research-based account of the
development of a learner-centred approach to oral proficiency assessment. It is an important
resource for teachers and teacher educators as well as assessment and curriculum specialists
worldwide. It deserves to be widely read.
