It would be difficult to estimate how many second language learners today have taken or will take a language test delivered by computer, but many high- and low-stakes tests are delivered by computer and the number is rapidly increasing. This fact of language testing in practice is reflected in a thread that runs through the Cambridge Language Assessment Series. The author of each book in the series suggests that computer technology plays a role in language assessment, and particularly in its future. In his survey of vocabulary assessments, for example, Read (2000) includes the computer-based Eurocentres Vocabulary Size Test and the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Beyond this discussion of computer-delivered tests, however, he points out that computerassisted methodologies are essential for an understanding of vocabulary that is needed to move vocabulary assessment forward. Similarly, Buck (2001) suggests that a critical issue for the future of listening comprehension assessment is presentation of oral language with the support of computer-delivered multimedia. Weigle's (2002) discussion of the future of writing assessment touches upon both the technology-assisted methods of writing assessment, such as computer scoring of written language, and the effects of technology on writing. Alderson (2000) discusses development of a large-scale Web-based test, computer-assisted testing methods for reading, as well as the construct of reading online. Douglas discusses “the pitfalls of technology” (Douglas, 2000, pp. 275ff.) in Assessing Languages for Specific Purposes.

Taken together, the strands of the technology thread point to an important change in the fabric of language assessment: the comprehensive introduction of technology.