BOOK REVIEWS 767

augmented in the new publication; the cautions mentioned relative

to construct validity should be carefully considered by every test
publisher and user.
Some persons actively engaged in employment psychology may
not feel that Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests
and Manuals is responsive enough to some of the social and tech-
nical issues facing the personnel psychologist today. It is to be
noted, however, that it is specifically stated that, &dquo;... primary
responsibility for improvement of testing rests on the shoulders of
test users.&dquo; A further consideration is that some of the presently
most pressing problems in employment psychology are likely to be
of a temporary nature and will probably not be so important when
educational opportunity is more nearly equalized throughout all
socioeconomic levels.
There are, however, in the document several points which every
personnel psychologist should consider. Among these are strictures
against implying that a test measures an &dquo;innate&dquo; ability and using
the labels, &dquo;culture-free&dquo; and &dquo;culture-fair.&dquo; The cautions expressed
relative to the use of moderator variables should be exercised in
employment research.
From an editorial viewpoint, the publication is excellent. A
rather complete index will aid in making Standards for Educa-
tional and Psychological Tests a more useful reference than its
predecessor.
MARY L. TENOPYR
North American Aviation, Inc.

Language Testing: The Construction and Use of Foreign Language

Tests by Robert Lado. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.,
1964. Pp. xxiii + 389.
In an age of such unprecedented and universal change as ours it
may seem presumptuous and pointless to single out change in any
one educational field. Still, the upsurge of interest in language
teaching and the curricular changes resulting from it present one
aspect that is probably unique. While few if any American educa-
tors ever seriously advocated dropping science, or mathematics, or
social studies, from the secondary school curriculum, a sizable part
of the educational community considered the teaching of foreign
languages, classical or modern, largely a waste of time. The events
of the last thirty years have taught us that the world outside our
borders cannot safely be ignored and that, in order to coexist with
other peoples, it is necessary to understand and speak their lan-
guages. When we took a good look at the type of language teaching
going on in our schools, however, we were dismayed to discover
that it was indeed a waste of time. The student who left college
768 EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT
not to mention high school-with a functional knowledge of a lan-
guage he had studied was the exception rather than the rule.
The effectiveness of recent curriculum changes is due to the fact
that they are not superficial reforms of traditional methods but are
rooted in a basic new understanding of the nature of language.
Modern linguistic science has struck down the artificial categories
into which language had been pressed many centuries ago and cre-
ated new concepts and categories to fit language as it is. The new
methods arising from this new understanding are increasingly ap-
plied in schools throughout the country. It is the purpose of Dr.
Lado’s book to provide teachers with adequate techniques for eval-
uating student learning in courses utilizing these new methods. A
well-known linguist, Dean of the Institute of Languages and Lin-
guistics at Georgetown University, and the author of Language
Teaching: A Scientific Approach, Dr. Lado is eminently fitted for
this task. His book is very well organized. Every aspect of the field
is covered fully and concisely from the point of view of linguistics,
teaching methods, and measurement. A detailed content outline
covering 15 pages will effectively guide the teacher seeking infor-
mation on any specific problem. Part I provides an orientation to the
linguistic thinking as well as to the premises about language testing
on which the book is based. The teacher unfamiliar with linguistics

might do well to peruse a few of the reference works listed before

attempting to put the book to practical use. Parts II and III discuss
in detail the variables to be tested as well as suitable techniques
for testing them. Part IV deals with the special problems of test-
ing cross-cultural understanding which, while transcending lan-
guage, is yet intimately related to it. The technical aspects of
measurement are explained in detail in Part V.
The author points out that some of the techniques generally used
in language testing, such as translation, dictation, or essay writ-
ing, have little relevance to the skills they claim to measure, and
that the same is true for objective tests constructed without a syste-
matic understanding of the variables involved in language learning.
Linguistic analysis has made available the means for accurately
identifying the elements of language as such as well as those ele-
ments integrated in the recognition and production skills. Teach-
ers can now isolate the problems of language learning and test
them with a precision far beyond that achieved by the haphazard
techniques hallowed by tradition. In their place, teachers will find
in this book a variety of techniques to fit different needs, and an
alert teacher will be stimulated to find additional techniques of his
own. The author takes little for granted. His directions for con-
structing tests as well as for scoring, norming, item analysis, and
other measurement procedures are clear and precise. Advantages
and limitations of techniques are pointed out as well as some of the
 BOOK REVIEWS 769

pitfalls of item writing; some others, however, have been over-

looked.
The book has other weaknesses. It is an unchanged reprint of the
London edition of 1961 and, judging from the date of the author’s
preface (1959), it is even older than that. In a field that has ad-
vanced rapidly in the past few years this is a serious shortcoming.
The two major instruments of standardized foreign language test-
ing, the Modern Language Association’s Proficiency and Coopera-
tive tests, which incorporate many of the ideas presented by Dr.
Lado and are by now widely used, are not mentioned. Nor are the
many tests included in recent textbooks. Surely a few short para-
graphs on developments as crucial as these could, and should, have
been added. Other references are similarly out of date. The value
of the book would have been greatly enhanced by incorporating in
it the results of the nationwide experience with standardized,
normed test batteries, for instance in the area of constructing
and scoring Speaking tests.
Much of the experience on which the book is based was gained
through the teaching of English as a foreign language. Teachers of
foreign languages should not be deterred by this. It may make
them aware of problems in their own teaching which they had not
been conscious of before. The few instances in which it has led to
inappropriate conclusions can be disregarded. However, teachers
may be seriously discouraged by the insistent recommendation to
validate tests with native speakers. This is unrealistic except
where a language is being taught in its native environment. It
also has a number of pitfalls and limitations that are only in-
completely pointed out, while most of its benefits can be procured
by having a test reviewed by one or two qualified language teach-
ers. Also, teachers familiar with current theories of modern lan-
guage learning will be taken aback by the frequent use of the na-
tive language as a stimulus.
The book has no index. Although it is largely replaced by the
content outline, the teacher seeking information on some topic
treated earlier would profit from page references. This drawback of
the book’s praiseworthy conciseness could easily have been avoided.
Not all of Dr. Lado’s suggestions can be accepted without quali-
fications. Factors extraneous to the problem tested are pointed out
in some techniques but not in others, e.g. lexical recognition in
testing production by sentence completion or the omitted letters
technique. While the professional test writer might be able to sug-
gest more appropriate techniques in some cases, or to point out
some flaws in item writing that might have been avoided, even he
can profit greatly from the theoretical and practical ideas pre-
sented in this book.
The author makes it clear that this is a teacher’s book, and it
770 EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT
will indeed be invaluable to the language teacher. For the language
supervisor, it will be of great help in the construction and use of
more formal tests for which the classroom teacher lacks both time
and facilities. It should also be recommended reading for admin-
istrators and guidance experts. The essential difference between
language as a vehicle for the communication of ideas and other
subjects that consist of ideas as such, the fundamental differences
between testing of the native or of a foreign tongue and, above all,
the realization of the many and complex variables that enter into
language learning, should come as an eye opener to those who have
thought of a foreign language as just another subject, and of a
foreign language test as just another achievement test.
SUZANNE STAHL
Educational Testing Service

Acquiescence and Social Desirability Response Styles, Item Char-

acteristics, and Conformity by Lawrence J. Stricker. Psycho-
logical Reports Monograph Supplement 2-V12, Missoula, Mon-
tana: Southern Universities Press, 1963. Pp. 22. $1.00.
The research reported attempts to integrate conceptualizations
from two quite different origins: experimental studies of conformity
and personality research on the response styles of acquiescence
and social desirability. The first of these concepts involves a sub-
ject’s yielding to opinions expressed by others in the experimental
situation and the second involves the subject’s either generally
agreeing with paper-and-pencil test items or agreeing with those
items that reflect socially acceptable norms. Stricker argues that
pre-established norms which a subject carries around with him
may affect his responses on personality and attitude tests in the
ways that the norms established by experimental &dquo;stooges&dquo; affect
responses in conformity experiments. If so, then there also may be
an equivalence between parameters varied in these two types of
research. And this is Stricker’s most interesting notion.
Ambiguity of objective-structure in the conformity experiment
may operate in parallel fashion to yield low-readability of test items.
Increasing the size of majority effects in the conformity experiment
may have parallel effects increasing the extremeness of socially
acceptable personality and attitude items. In addition, Stricker
wishes to explore the generality of conforming as a general person-
ality characteristic. If there are those who consistently conform,
they should show it not only by agreeing or disagreeing with items
according to their social acceptability, but also by simply agreeing
with any item for which there is no identifiable social norm.
Subjects were tested in order to classify them on degree of ac-
quiescence and on degree of social desirability response styles. In