In the first part of this paper different areas where technology may be used for second language assessment
are described. First, item banking operations, which are generally based on Item Response Theory but not necessarily restricted
to dichotomously scored items, facilitate assessment task organization and require technological support. Second, technology may
help to design more authentic assessment tasks or may be needed in some direct testing situations. Third, the assessment
environment may be more adapted and more stimulating when technology is used to give the student more control. The second part
of the paper presents different functions of assessment. The monitoring function (often called formative assessment) aims at
adapting the classroom activities to students and to provide continuous feedback. Technology may be used to train the teachers
in monitoring techniques, to organize data or to produce diagnostic information; electronic portfolios or quizzes that are built
in some educational software may also be used for monitoring. The placement function is probably the one in which the application
of computer adaptive testing procedures (e.g. French CAPT) is the most appropriate. Automatic scoring devices may also be used
for placement purposes. Finally the certification function requires more valid and more reliable tools. Technology may be
used to enhance the testing situation (to make it more authentic) or to facilitate data processing during the construction of a
test. Almond et al. (2002) propose a four component model (Selection, Presentation, Scoring and Response) for
designing assessment systems. Each component must be planned taking into account the assessment function.