a sample analysis of empirical validity in the articles publishedin a lifetime of language testing journal

Sampling has long been a central concern in planning empirical research because of its significant impact on the accuracy and quality of the findings. validation studies are particularly sample oriented because their findings are assumed to be context and sample dependent. an analysis of samples and sampling in such studies will be of interest and benefit to language testing researchers and professors to illustrate the representation of stakeholders in language testing research. this study is a systematic review on the sampling issues in all the empirical validity articles published in the lifespan of language testing journal. the issues of concern were sampling frame, sampling method, and specific characteristics of samples including gender, age, and language. the study used a qualitative approach and all the articles were qualitatively annotated, coded and analyzed. the findings revealed that the researchers predominantly used simple random sampling. a majority of the articles failed to present the age and gender of the samples. further, sample gender and age range were reported in 40% and 26% of the articles respectively. the published articles favored dominantly an anglophone orientation and context (22%). sampling frame notoriously received no attention and was missing in the articles. the implications of the findings will help future researchers, and research and assessment course professors.