Assessment of English for academic purposes

Assessment is a critical aspect of any English for academic purposes (EAP) program. In this revision of our chapter from the first edition, we start by distinguishing between testing and assessment and discuss major purposes for assessment. We review the history of language assessment and EAP testing specifically, as well as current critical issues and topics in EAP assessment, particularly the increase in online assessment methods in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the introduction of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. We update our section on research methodology and contributions of research to assessing EAP. Finally, we discuss future directions in testing, especially concerning the impact of generative AI on item development, test security, and scoring.