Lyle Bachman's Webpage

Lyle F. Bachman
Professor, Applied Linguistics & TESL
Rolfe Hall, Room 3300D, 3314
P.O. Box 951531
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1531
(310) 825-4631
fax: (310) 206-4118

lfb@humnet.ucla.edu

Education: Ph.D., Indiana University, 1971

Selected Publications:

1. Language assessment

Language Assessment in the Real World (with Adrian S. Palmer.) Oxford University Press. (In press.)
“What is the construct? the dialectic of abilities and context in defining constructs in language assessment”. In Fox, J, Wesche, M, Eds. Language testing reconsidered. University of Ottawa Press. 2006.
“Building and supporting a case for test use”, Language Assessment Quarterly 2, 1:1-34.
Statistical Analyses for Language Assessment. Cambridge University Press. 2004.
Keeping Score for All: The Effects of Inclusion and Accommodation Policies on Large-Scale Educational Assessment. (Co-edited with Judith A. Koenig). Washington, DC: National Research Council. 2004.
"Some reflections on task-based language performance assessment", Language Testing 19, (3) 2002.
"Alternate interpretations of alternative assessments: some validity issues in educational performance assessments", Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice 21, (3). 2002.
"Modern language testing at the turn of the century: assuring that what we count counts". Language Testing 17, (1). 2000.
"A latent variable approach to listening and reading: testing factorial invariance across two groups of children in the Korean/English two-way immersion program." Language Testing 15, (3) 1998. (with Jungok Bae).
Language Testing in Practice. (with Adrian S. Palmer) Oxford University Press. 1996.
An Investigation into the Comparability of Two Tests of English as a Foreign Language: The Cambridge-TOEFL Comparability Study. (with Fred Davidson, Kathryn Ryan and Inn-Chull Choi).University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate and Cambridge University Press, 1994
"An investigation into the adequacy of three IRT models for data from two EFL reading tests", Language Testing 9, (1) (with Inn-Chull Choi)1992.
"What does language testing have to offer?" TESOL Quarterly 25, (4) 1991.
Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing. Oxford University Press, 1990.

2.Epistemology in Applied Linguistics and educational research

Generalizability and Research Use Arguments”. In Ercikan K. and Roth, W-M. (Eds.) Generalizing from Educational Research. New York: Taylor & Francis. 2008
Generalizability: a journey into the nature of empirical research in applied linguistics”. In Chalhoub-Deville, M., Chapelle, C. A. and Duff, P. (Eds.). Inference and generalizability in applied linguistics: Multiple perspectives. Dordrecht, Netherlands: John Benjamins. 2006

3. Second language acquisition

Interfaces between Second Language Acquisition and Language Testing Research. (co-edited with Andrew D. Cohen)Cambridge University Press, 1998
"Language testing-SLA interfaces: An update" (with A.D. Cohen). In L.F. Bachman and A.D. Cohen, Eds. Interfaces between SLA and Language Testing Research. Cambridge University Press. 1998
"Language testing-SLA research interfaces." In R. Kaplan, ed. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, Volume 9. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 193-209. 1989.

4. Language program evaluation

"The development and use of criterion-referenced tests of language proficiency in language program evaluation." In R. K. Johnson, ed. The Second Language Curriculum. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 242-58. 1989.
"Formative evaluation in ESP program development," In R. Mackay and J. D. Palmer, eds. Languages for Specific Purposes: Program Design and Evaluation. Newbury House. Pp. 106-16, 1981.

Experience:

Professor Bachman's interests in language assessment, language acquisition, ESL/EFL and international programs stem from his service as a Peace Corps Volunteer, teaching high school English in the Philippines. His international experience also includes six years in Thailand as a Project Specialist for The Ford Foundation, where he directed intensive English programs, conducted research in the assessment of language proficiency, language aptitude and attitudes, directed a project for developing an individualized elementary school EFL curriculum, and served as a consultant to government agencies and institutions on language testing and language program development. He also spent three years at Tehran University in Iran developing an ESP reading curriculum, and two years at the Chinese University of Hong Kong developing an English language enhancement program. He has been a faculty member at the University of Hawaii, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Professor Bachman is a Past President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics and of the International Language Testing Association. He was the first winner of the TESOL/Newbury House Award for Outstanding Research, has twice won the Modern Language Association of America’s Kenneth Mildenberger Award for outstanding research publication, was selected as one of 30 American "ESL Pioneers" by ESL Magazine in 1999, and in 2004 was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Language Testing Association. He has served on several committees of the National Research Council, and is currently a member of the Board on Testing and Assessment, a standing board of the National Academies of Science. He has conducted numerous research projects in the areas of language assessment, program design and evaluation, and language acquisition, as well as practitioner training workshops in language assessment, both at North American institutions and at institutions abroad. He serves as a consultant in language assessment and language program design, evaluation and research to government agencies and institutions in Hong Kong, Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdom. His current professional interests are split about equally among research, teaching, program development, and training practitioners

Research Interests:

Empirical (quantitative and qualitative ) studies into:

validation theory
issues in assessing the academic achievement and academic English of English language learners in schools
the nature of language ability
the interface between language testing research and second language acquisition research,
factors that affect performance on language assessments
relationships between individual learner characteristics and performance on language assessments
relationships between various types of strategies (e.g., learning, cognitive, metacognitive) and performance on language assessments

Speculative studies into:

epistemological issues in Applied Linguistics and educational research
validation theory
mind and body in Buddhist ontology and epistemology

Languages: Thai: conversation, good; German: conversation and reading, fair; some familiarity with in Farsi, Tagalog and Cantonese.