The rationale for the seminar was primarily that there are links between language testing and assessment on one hand and applied linguistics on the other which could be mutually beneficial, but are not necessarily perceived as such. Secondly, it was suggested that research in language assessment and applied linguistics have been perceived as distinct, with the roles of language testing and assessment in applied linguistics relatively unexplored, an artificial divide that Bachman u26 Cohen (1998), for example, argue should be bridged (see also Bachman u26 Palmer 1996; Shohamy 2001). An additional motivation for proposing this conference was to build on the growing presence of assessment and testing concerns within applied linguistics, not merely to address issues of visibility but, importantly, to contribute to a research agenda between different research communities within our (wider) applied linguistics community. To this end, we asked our keynote speakers and those who submitted abstracts to focus explicitly on reciprocity between the fields.
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