1. ARE WE TESTING WHAT WE WANT TO TEST? Carole Thomas Bilkent University, Turkey

2. The Focus of this Talk To introduce the COPE examination The specification of the COPE Lessons learnt from the specification Some Observations

3. The COPE Exam READING35 items LISTENING30 items LANGUAGE35 items WRITING1 essay 350 words SPEAKING paired interview 12 mins

4. The COPE Linking Project FAMILIARISATION SPECIFICATION STANDARDISATION EMPIRICAL VALIDATION

5. The Reading Paper

6. The Reading Construct Reading is the skill of extracting directly stated and/or inferred information from a written text. This involves employing reading strategies as well as grammatical, lexical and discoursal knowledge. The underlying strategies and competencies required for the reading paper are as defined in the BUSEL syllabus.

7. Weir’s Framework (Overview)

8. Weir’s Framework (Context V.)

9. Weir’s Framework (Theory-b. V.)

10. Weir’s Framework (Scoring V.)

11. The Reading Specification 1

12. The Reading Specification 2

13. Observations Specification is VITAL to the integrity of the test Understanding the specification process is as important as being familiar with the CEFR Without a systematic specification we cannot even begin the linking process For us the combination of the CEFR and Weir’s framework was an appropriate solution

14. Contact Carole Thomas carole@bilkent.edu.tr Bilkent University School of English Language http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~busel/