Taalvaardigheid: Meten Versus Observatie En Analyse

Different types of validation are subjected to a critical examination, notably the underlying inadequate psychological latent trait' personality-theory and the unacceptably low prognostic capacity (or external or criterion related validity) of tests.It is argued that by the application of the Rasch-Analysis the results of tests are even worse in terms of explanatory adequacy with respect to content and criterion related validity, although esthetically the quantitative results look better.In the second part of the paper three different investigations are discussed. It is demonstrated that test results of these studies do not correlate or even correlate negatively with the computed results of an observational study of foreign (or second) language capacity. It is concluded that tests should not be used in order to determine proficiency.