Treatise (Ed. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Zugl.: Giessen, Univ., Diss., 2006

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-86).

Berlin, Universiẗat der Künste, Diss., 2006.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2005--Würzburg.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Vita. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-86).

Tierärztl. Hochsch., Diss., 2004--Hannover.

This thesis explores the implications for language test validation of developments in language teaching and testing methodology, test validity and computer-based delivery. It identifies a range of features that tests may now exhibit in novel combinations, and concludes that these combinations of factors favour a continuing process of validation for such tests. It proposes such a model designed around a series of cycles drawing on diverse sources of data. The research uses the Five Star test, a private commercial test designed for use in a specific cultural context, as an exemplar of a larger class of tests exhibiting some or all of these features. A range of validation activities on the Five Star test is reported and analysed from two quite different sources, an independent expert panel that scrutinised the test task by task and an analysis of 460 test results using item-response theory (IRT). The validation activities are critically evaluated for the purpose of the model, which is then applied to the Five Star test. A historical overview of language teaching and testing methodology reveals the communicative approach to be the dominant paradigm, but suggests that there is no clear consensus about the key features of this approach or how they combine. It has been applied incompletely to language testing, and important aspects of the approach are identified which remain problematic, especially for the assessment of spoken language. They include the constructs of authenticity, interaction and topicality whose status in the literature is reviewed and determinability in test events discussed. The evolution of validity in the broader field of educational and psychological testing informs the development of validation in language testing and a transition is identified away from validity as a one-time activity attaching to the test instrument towards validation as a continuing process that informs the interpretation of test results. In test delivery, this research reports on the validation issues raised by computer-based adaptive testing, particularly with respect to test instruments such as the Five Star test that combine direct face-to-face interaction with computer-based delivery. In the light of the theoretical issues raised and the application of the model to the Five Star test, some implications of the model for use in other test environments are presented critically and recommendations made for its development.

Variability of pre-main-sequence stars observed at optical wavelengths has been attributed to fluctuations in the mass accretion rate from the circumstellar disk onto the forming star. Detailed models of accretion disks suggest that young deeply em- bedded protostars should also exhibit variations in their accretion rates, and that these changes can be tracked indirectly by monitoring the response of the dust enve- lope at mid-IR to millimeter wavelengths. Interferometers such as ALMA offer the resolution and sensitivity to observe small fluctuations in brightness at the scale of the disk where episodic accretion may be driven. In this thesis, novel methods for comparing interferometric observations are presented and applied to CARMA and ALMA 1.3mm observations of deeply embedded protostars in Serpens taken 9 years apart. No brightness variation is found above the limits of the analysis of a factor of ~>50%, due to the limited sensitivity of the CARMA observations and small number of sources common to both epochs. It is further shown that follow up ALMA observa- tions with a similar sample size and sensitivity may be able to uncover variability at the level of a few percent, and the implications of this for future work are discussed. / Graduate