Testing language for specific purposes (LSP) is critical for understanding how an individual's language performances might vary from situation to situation, with different test tasks, or both. Researchers and language test practitioners are faced with a complex task when designing field-specific tests and implementing viable test methods in which field-specific contextual constraints arise. This volume reviews the challenges and changes to accommodating these influences and provides methodologies for the revision of the Business English Certificates (BEC). Divided into five chapters, the volume opens with a brief historical introduction to the testing of language for business purposes. The first chapter seeks to provide an overview of some of the central issues in LSP facing language testers today by embedding practical considerations in a theoretical context and by reviewing tests of business language (e.g., Test of English for International Communication, Pitman Qualifications, and London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Examinations Board tests). Also discussed are tests of language for business and commerce in languages other than English. From a systematic point of view, the volume discusses the construct upon which each test focuses, the test method, skills coverage, measurement qualities, degree of specificity and situational authenticity, impact of nonlanguage factors, and score reporting. Furthermore, the development of business English testing at the Cambridge English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL; e.g., Certificate in English as a Foreign Language for Secretaries, Certificate in English for International Business and Trade, Oxford International Business English Certificate, and Business Language Testing System) is discussed at length.

Featuring a detailed description of the revision methodology of the BEC, the volume presents a wide spectrum of large-scale English for specific purposes (ESP) test development, followed by the discussion of the evolution of ESP at the Cambridge ESOL and of its position today. Chapter 2 focuses on the Cambridge ESOL's five main approaches in their suite of test development projects: the assessment of the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing; a system of criterion levels; assessment for a variety of purposes; a commitment to quality and fairness; and an ongoing program of validation and test revision. Among these, to illustrate a system of criterion levels within a multilevel context, the Cambridge ESOL/Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) “Can Do” framework project and the Common European Framework (CEF) are compared with the BEC, noting the influence that the BEC revision has received from ALTE and CEF. A particular focus is placed on reliability as a way of ensuring overall test quality and test validity.

Chapter 3 emphasizes features of the major changes to the BEC suite: reporting of results as one overall grade; the weighting of the different components both within each paper and within each level, taking into account the different subskills from different elements of the papers; the increased business focus for the Speaking papers; renaming of the papers to clarify the level that the tests are aimed at; and benchmarking of the ALTE/CEFB1 level at the level of BEC1/BEC Preliminary. Chapter 4 illustrates changes made to the individual papers in the BEC suite. The final chapter captures substantive issues of authenticity in LSP design and takes the perspective of a multicomponential view that regards all tests as lying on a continuum between the specific and general language use domain. In that chapter, O'Sullivan argues that locating specificity to be tested and “awareness of the degree to which authenticity decisions impact on the specificity of the test and the ability to deliver instruments of a high quality” (p. 193) are crucial in any LSP test development and revision.

A glossary of abbreviations, numerous illustrations through tables and figures, and appendixes in which copies of sample papers at all three levels for both the original and revised BEC suite of examinations are included, together with other LSP tests mentioned previously, to further aid readers' understanding of how the BEC was developed, challenged, and revised. This important work about the development and revision of the BEC suite of examinations should prepare readers to understand underlying LSP theories, to appreciate the most current approaches to LSP design, and to solve the technical problems that might be encountered along the way when they launch their own LSP test development, maintenance, and subsequent revision.