Introduction

The first part of this chapter provides an overview of how the idea of this edited volume on spoken and signed language assessment came about. The chapter also gives an insight into the different histories of spoken and signed language assessment and test research with their different backgrounds and contexts. It shows that very little interaction between signed and spoken language assessment communities exist so far. The second part of this chapter outlines the structure and the 12 themes that are addressed in this volume. While themes 1–6 focus one the assessment of young learners, the themes 7–12 focus on the assessment of adult learners....