Raters' decisions, rating procedures and rating scales

This special issue of Language Testing explores raters’ evaluations of L2 proficiency and possible causes of variability of rater judgments. In addition to the analysis of rater behavior and rater consistency, we investigate the relationship between general measures of oral and written L2 performance concerning complexity, accuracy and fluency of L2 production and overall judgments of oral and written L2 performance by raters, based on holistic rating scales. Finally, the use of rating scales in different contexts and for different types of learners is also examined. In this introduction the three central themes presented in the various contributions are briefly discussed: rater behavior and rater consistency, rater judgments and measures of language performance, and the use of global rating scales.