Assessing Assessment Literacy: Insights from a High-Stakes Test

This study constitutes an attempt to see what Language assessment literacy (LAL) is for three groups of stakeholders, namely LAL test developers, LAL instructors, and LAL test-takers. The perceptions of the former group were derived from the content analysis of the latest version of the LAL test, and those of the latter 2 groups were assessed through a survey designed by the researcher. Participants were 54 M.A. TEFL students sampled conveniently. Descriptive statistical analysis of the data revealed that for test designers LAL is mainly a matter of knowledge and theory with little importance accorded to skills and even less so to principles. For instructors and test-takers, LAL was perceived to be mainly a matter of skills. Moreover, test-takers perceived of LAL as the most challenging module of the test because of its dealing with statistics, its theoretical nature, and test-taker's lack of hands-on experience with language tests.