Heterogeneous Test-takers, Homogeneous Test Construct! Foundations of L2 Assessment Revisited: A Study of Cognition-related Assessment

Researchers have tried to increase knowledge about how to test language ability.Still, important elements of cognition have not been perceived in traditional tests, and assessments are not designed to assess differences in learners’ levels of understanding. The question of whether Classical Test Theory (CTT), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Generalizability (G) Theory, and Psychometrics can justify the heterogeneity of EFL learners remains unanswered. This study investigatedthe extent heterogeneous EFL learners,who have been different in their L2 memory pathways, cognitive control and type-of-test preferences, have similarly been assessed. This study was conducted on 101 adult participants (50 males; mean age 34.63). The participants’ EFL levels fell within the scope of 49 basic and 52 independent users. The researchers gathered data usingSelf-Report Measure of Phonological Memory Questionnaire (SMPM) to tap into their memory pathways and type-of-test preferences. Both descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviations, frequencies) and inferential statistics (T-test) were run on the data. The analyses indicated that 50.5% of the EFL test-takers were eager to take multiple-choice/true-false test formats. Thus, they needed prompts to repair their chain of sequential events in their explicit knowledge. 8% of the participants had mature L2 cognitive control, and 14% of themwere not mature in this regard. Most EFL learners benefited implicit knowledgein retrieving information. It clarified that inputs which were acquired by explicit memory could ordinarily be supported by implicit knowledge. Cognition-related assessment/discipline should be taken into accounton both learning and performance. One type of assessment does not fit all.