Toetsconstructie bij het "Certificaat Nederlands"

The tests of the "Certificaat Nederlands" ("Dutch Certificate") are proficiency tests. They require the examinee to perform functional language-use tasks in situations that approximate as closely as possible the conditions under which these tasks are carried out in real life. These tests are curriculum-free in that they do not depend on any specific course or didactic method. Three levels of proficiency have been defined (elemen-tary, basic, advanced). The linguistic contents of the test is circumscribed by specific wordlists (Elementaire Woordenlijst, Basiswoordenboek) en by a taxonomy of verbal abilities which includes a description of the verbal performances at the three levels. The tests of the "Certificaat Nederlands" are direct tests of the four skills: reading, listening, speaking en writing. They are first of all designed as face- and content- valid represen-tations of the kinds of language situations at issue in real-life language use. The immediate consequences of this choice for test format, text selection and test evaluation are discussed.