Charles Stansfield Recent Research on Language Testing:- REPORT FROM THE 27TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST COUNCIL ON FOREIGN LANGUAGES Six papers on diverse topics were presented at the 27th Annual Conference of the Pacific Northwest Council on Foreign Languages held in Seattle, Washington on April 23 and 24, 1976. The PNCFL is a regional association of high school and college level foreign language teachers residing in the Northwestern United States and Southwestern Canada. Its 1976 conference was held in Seattle, Washington on April 23 and 24 under the sponsorship of Seattle Pacific College. Some 400 persons registered for the conference although slightly fewer attended. Of special interest to readers of System is the fact that this year the conference included two sections on foreign and second language testing chaired by Professor Charles Stansfield of the University of Colorado, Boulder. Each section included three formal pre- sentations followed by a lively exchange of ideas and re- actions among those present. In addition, a learning style identification instrument was demonstrated. The first section, held on April 23, began with a paper by Professor Stansf±eld entitled "Teachers' Attitudes to- ward Publishers' Tests." The author describes an exten- sive survey he conducted in the Spring of 1974. At the re- quest of a commercial textbook publisher, Stansfield chaired a four member team in the development of a 125 item questionnaire designed to ascertain the attitudes of secondary school foreign language teachers towards various classroom instructional materials. Although the instrument concentrated on the preferred design of the basic text, seven questions treated supplementary unit tests. Question- naires were sent to 3500 secondary school department chair- men with 1424 being returned to the publisher for analysis. Two-thirds of the teachers responding claimed they never use any tests they have not themselves prepared, -while only 1% stated they never prepared their own tests. Teachers felt that tapes, workbooks, and teachers manuals were more essential materials than tests in the selection of a text. In spite of the prestigious position occupied by objective tests in American education and their apparent advantages, the foreign language department chairmen surveyed rejected them overwhelmingly. In response to the question "Should publishers' tests be based on true-false and multiple choice items?", 84% responded n_oo, 6% y e s , and 8% had no opinion.