Fairness of language tests and testing practices has always been a
concern among test developers and test users. In the past decade
educational and language assessment researchers have begun to focus
directly on fairness and related matters such as test standards, test
bias and equity and ethics for testing professionals. The 19th annual
Language Testing Research Colloquium held in 1997 in Orlando, Florida,
brought this overall concern into sharp focus by having 'Fairness in
Language Testing' as its theme. The conference presentations and
discussions attempted to understand the concept of fairness, define the
scope of the concept and connect it with the concept of validation of
test score interpretation. The papers in this volume offer a first
introduction to fairness and validation in the field of language
assessment.