Innovating procedures for testing language majors in an Italian university context

Language degree courses at the University of Padua have long been characterised by large numbers of students, and approximately 600 students registered for first-year English courses in the 2005/2006 academic year. In 2004 the testing procedures were, therefore, radically changed and a new online exam was developed using the software QuestionMark Perception. The test consisted of grammar/vocabulary and listening items and a free writing task. The latter required candidates to read and reply to an online forum message: this part of the exam was double-marked using a custom-made scoring table. Continuous assessment of writing skills was offered as an alternative to the writing task, and work on the European Language Portfolio was integrated into the continuous assessment and the oral test. The article evaluates these changes, focussing on the validity and reliability of the new test. It also reports on the statistical analysis of the internal correlation between the different parts of the test, the external correlation between the first-year exam and another valid test, and compares the student performance on two different versions of the exam.