Background and Foundational Research for the Revision of the TEPS

Since the first administration of the TEPS in 1999, there have been many important changes in the field of language teaching and assessment. The emergence of new information and communication technology has drastically changed the ways we communicate. This has made it necessary to re-conceptualize the construct of English language proficiency. To respond to such needs and to TEPS test takers’ feedback that had accumulated for more than 15 years, a series of research projects was undertaken to revise the TEPS during the years of 2016-2018. Major changes included a reduction in the number of items and testing time and the addition of new item types (e.g., testlets) and more authentic passage formats (e.g., e-mails, instant messages, online newspaper articles). This paper introduces the background to how the decision to revise the TEPS came to be made and describes the rationale behind the revision of the TEPS test blueprint and specification.