Standards of Quality

Reliability

Ongoing research and rigorous procedures of test construction and administration ensure that the high quality, validity, and reliability of the GEPT are maintained. A test review published in Language Testing suggests that the GEPT is communicatively oriented, practical, and highly reliable.* The reliability indices for the GEPT Listening and Reading tests fall between 0.87 and 0.91. The inter-rater reliability indices for the writing and speaking tests are between 0.89 and 0.90, while the discrepancy rate falls between 0.014 and 0.017.

*Roever, C., & Pan, Y.C. (2008). GEPT: General English Proficiency Test, Language Testing, 25 (3), 403-418.

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Academic Support

The research and development team is responsible for writing test items, compiling test forms, and conducting research on test development. The LTTC also employs domestic and international experts as consultants, research committee members, testing committee members, item reviewers, and item writers. In order to further enhance the quality of the GEPT, the LTTC invited renowned scholars in the field of language testing to advise the GEPT research and development team in the capacity of consultants, including Professor Charles Alderson (Lancaster University), Professor Lyle F. Bachman (University of California, Los Angeles), Professor Cyril J. Weir (University of Bedfordshire), Professor Tim McNamara (University of Melbourne), and Professor Antony Kunnan (University of Macau).

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International Partnerships

The LTTC engages itself actively in various international testing-related organizations such as the Academic Forum on English Language Testing in Asia (AFELTA) and the Asian Association for Language Assessment (AALA), of which the LTTC is one of the founding members. The LTTC is also an institutional member of the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) and the International Language Testing Association (ILTA). By interacting frequently with other testing organizations, the LTTC endeavors to improve the quality of its research and administration in the field of language testing.

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Ongoing Research

Research papers and reports on the GEPT have been published in testing-related books and professional journals, as well as on the LTTC website (https://www.gept.org.tw/Eng/thesis.html). Research studies on validation, reliability, absence of bias, access and accommodations, administration and security, and social consequences are underway, as per Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education (Joint Committee on Testing Practices, 2004), Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education, 1999), and ETS Standards for Quality and Fairness.

In view of the growing trend of developing and using locally-produced standardized English proficiency tests in Asian EFL contexts, the LTTC published English Language Proficiency Testing in Asia in 2019. It is hoped that, by sharing the knowledge and expertise drawn from experiences in developing English language tests tailored to local needs, this volume can engender a greater understanding of the theory and practice of test localization.

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The LTTC-GEPT Research Grants

In order to assist external researchers in conducting quality research on GEPT-related topics and to further enhance the reliability and validity of the GEPT, the LTTC offers the LTTC-GEPT Research Grants. Since 2010, grants have been awarded to academic institutions and scholars in Australia, Hong Kong, the UK, and the U.S., for conducting research projects such as comparing the GEPT with IELTS and TOEFL, and investigating the alignment of the GEPT and the CEFR. Research reports that have been completed are now available at https://www.lttc.ntu.edu.tw/tw/lttc_gept_grants.