Dimensions of Language Assessment Liter...

Language teacher education programmes in Austria and around the world are faced with the challenge of familiarising pre-service teachers with the theory and practice of professional language assessment. Scholars have proposed both theoretical and empirical models of Language Assessment Literacy (LAL), identifying a range of components of assessment-related competence required of teachers and other stakeholders. While the relevant literature has focused primarily on the horizontal dimension (i.e., essential components or parameters of LAL), much less is known about the vertical dimension (i.e., the question of how LAL develops and how progress in the various categories can be conceptualised). The study presented in this chapter is based on a developmental view of LAL. It addresses the vertical dimension through an empirical investigation of the perceived level of difficulty of specified assessment-related abilities, knowledge, and understanding. To this end, Austrian pre-service teachers of English indicated on a five-point rating scale how well they think they can do, know, or understand what is covered in an adaptation of the Language Assessment Literacy Survey (Kremmel and Harding, 2020). These data were used to scale the survey items by means of multi-facet Rasch measurement. The results are interpreted as a continuum of ability and difficulty in relation to these items. After presenting the rationale, the methodology, and the results of the study, the chapter discusses opportunities for further research, as well as possible implications of the findings for teacher education and LAL programmes.