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Language Assessment Quarterly Volume 18, 2021 - Issue 1: The quest to maintain language assessment quality during a pandemic: Stories from higher education
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Interview

“Follow Your Interests Because Those Will Motivate You to Excel”: An Interview with Alister Cumming

Khaled Barkaouia York University, CanadaCorrespondence[email protected]
,
Ling Shib University of British Columbia, Canada
&
Mehdi Riazic Macquarie University, AustraliaORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-7648-8116
ORCID Icon
Pages 56-75 | Published online: 06 Dec 2020

Alister’s key publications on language assessment

  • Cumming, A. (1985). Responding to the writing of students of English as a second language. In M. Maguire & A. Paré (Eds.), Patterns of development (pp. 58–75). Ottawa, Canada: Canadian Council of Teachers of English.
  • Cumming, A. (1987a). Evaluations and developments of foreign language education in China. Canadian and International Education, 16(1), 222–226.
  • Cumming, A. (1987b). What is a second language program evaluation? Canadian Modern Language Review, 43(4), 678–700. doi:10.3138/cmlr.43.4.678
  • Cumming, A. (1990). Expertise in evaluating second language compositions. Language Testing, 7(1), 31–51. doi:10.1177/026553229000700104
  • Cumming, A. (1994). Does language assessment facilitate recent immigrants’ participation in Canadian society? TESL Canada Journal, 11(2), 117–133. doi:10.18806/tesl.v11i2.637
  • Cumming, A. (1995). Changing definitions of language proficiency: Functions of language assessment in educational programs for recent immigrant learners of English in Canada. Journal of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics, 17(1), 35–48.
  • Cumming, A. (1996a). IEA’s studies of language education: Their scope and contributions. In H. Goldstein (Ed.), Special Issue of Assessment in Education, 3(2), 201–214.
  • Cumming, A. (1996b). The concept of validation in language testing. In A. Cumming & R. Berwick (Eds.), Validation in language testing (pp. 1–14). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
  • Cumming, A. (1997). The testing of second-language writing. In C. Clapham (Ed.), Language assessment, vol. 7 of the Encyclopedia of language and education (pp. 51–63). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer.
  • Cumming, A. (2001a). ESL/EFL writing instructors’ practices for assessment: General or specific purposes? Language Testing, 18(2), 207–224. doi:10.1177/026553220101800206
  • Cumming, A. (2001b). The difficulty of standards, for example in L2 writing. In T. Silva & P. Matsuda (Eds.), On second language writing (pp. 209–229). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Cumming, A. (2003). Assessing L2 writing: Alternative constructs and ethical dilemmas? Assessing Writing, 8(2), 73–83. doi:10.1016/S1075-2935(02)00047-8
  • Cumming, A. (2004). Broadening, deepening, and consolidating. Language Assessment Quarterly, 1(1), 5–18. doi:10.1207/s15434311laq0101_2
  • Cumming, A. (2007). New directions in testing English language proficiency for university entrance. In J. Cummins & C. Davison (Eds.), International handbook of English language teaching (Vol. 1, pp. 473–486). New York, NY: Springer.
  • Cumming, A. (2008). Assessing oral and literate abilities. In E. Shohamy (Ed.), N. Hornberger (Series Ed.), Language testing and assessment, vol. 7 of Encyclopedia of language and education (2nd ed, pp. 3–18). New York, NY: Springer.
  • Cumming, A. (2009a). Assessing academic writing in foreign and second languages: Research timeline. Language Teaching, 42(1), 95–107. doi:10.1017/S0261444808005430
  • Cumming, A. (2009b). Language assessment in education: Tests, curricula and teaching. In B. Spolsky (Ed.), Language policy and assessment. Annual review of applied linguistics (Vol. 29, pp. 90–100). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
  • Cumming, A. (2009c). What needs to be developed to facilitate classroom-based assessment? TESOL Quarterly, 43(3), 515–519. doi:10.1002/j.1545-7249.2009.tb00247.x
  • Cumming, A. (2013a). Assessing integrated writing tasks for academic purposes: Promises and perils. Language Assessment Quarterly, 10(1), 1–8. doi:10.1080/15434303.2011.622016
  • Cumming, A. (2013b). Validation of language assessments. In C. Chapelle (Ed.), Assessment and evaluation, C. Chapelle (Series Ed.), Encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1242
  • Cumming, A. (2013c). What can dynamic assessments and conventional tests reveal about language and literacy abilities? In H. McGarrell & D. Wood (Eds.). Special Research Symposium Issue, Contact, 39(2), 50–58.
  • Cumming, A. (2014a). Assessing integrated skills. In A. Kunnan (Ed.), Companion to language assessment (pp. 216–229). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9781118411360.wbcla131
  • Cumming, A. (2014b). Linking assessment to curricula, teaching, and learning in language education. In D. Qian & L. Li (Eds.), Teaching and learning English in East Asian universities: Global visions and local practices (pp. 2–18). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Cumming, A. (2015). Design in four diagnostic language assessments. Language Testing, 32(3), 407–416. doi:10.1177/0265532214559115
  • Cumming, A., & Berwick, R. (Eds.). (1996). Validation in language testing. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
  • Cumming, A., Cho, Y., Burstein, J., Everson, P., & Kantor, R. (in press). Assessing academic writing. In X. Xi & J. Norris (Eds.), Assessing Academic English. New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Cumming, A., Grant, L., Mulcahy-Ernt, P., & Powers, D. (2004). A teacher-verification study of speaking and writing prototype tasks for a new TOEFL. Language Testing, 21(2), 159–197. doi:10.1191/0265532204lt278oa
  • Cumming, A., Kantor, R., Baba, K., Erdosy, U., Eouanzoui, K., & James, M. (2005). Differences in written discourse in independent and integrated prototype tasks for the next generation TOEFL. Assessing Writing, 10(1), 5–43. doi:10.1016/j.asw.2005.02.001
  • Cumming, A., Kantor, R., & Powers, D. (2002). Decision making while rating ESL/EFL writing tasks: A descriptive framework. Modern Language Journal, 86(1), 67–96. doi:10.1111/1540-4781.00137
  • Cumming, A., Kantor, R., Powers, D., Santos, T., & Taylor, C. (2000). TOEFL 2000 writing framework: A working paper. TOEFL Monograph Series, Report No. 18. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service. Retrieved from http://ftp.ets.org/pub/toefl/253719.pdf
  • Cumming, A., & Laurier, M. (Eds.). (2007). Language assessment. [special issue]. Canadian Modern Language Review, 64, (1).
  • Cumming, A., & Mellow, D. (1996). An investigation into the validity of written indicators of second language proficiency. In A. Cumming & R. Berwick (Eds.), Validation in language testing (pp. 72–93). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
  • Mendelsohn, D., & Cumming, A. (1987). Professors’ ratings of language use and rhetorical organization in ESL compositions. TESL Canada Journal, 5(1), 11–26. doi:10.18806/tesl.v5i1.512
  • Qian, D., & Cumming, A. (2017). Researching English language assessment in China: Focusing on high-stakes testing. Introduction to Special Issue, High-stakes English Tests in China, of Language Assessment Quarterly, 14(2), 97–100. doi:10.1080/15434303.2017.1295969

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