Abstract
Achievement of advanced literacy as a goal of foreign language (FL) study within the available amount of time requires that FL departments construct a well‐articulated program and optimize student learning at each stage of the curriculum. One essential element of such optimization is the development of assessment procedures to place students into courses that enable successful fostering of their abilities. Ideally, such assessment practices should incorporate aspects of textual literacy, including a well‐motivated link between meaning‐oriented textual semantics and the required lexicogrammatical features. This article reports on the revision and validity evaluation of a C‐test as one component of the placement test in the Georgetown University German program and as an instrument that includes accounting for textual literacy. We begin with the reasons for the test revision and report on the development and evaluation of the new C‐test texts, which enabled better alignment with the curriculum and demonstrate a fitting range of reliable distinctions among examinees of broadly differing abilities. The article concludes by highlighting the central role of contextually relevant assessment practices for the success of a program that aims to develop advanced literacy in a FL and the lessons learned throughout the evaluation process.
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