Cicero saw publication as a means of perpetuating a distinctive image of himself as statesman and orator. He memorialized his spiritual and oratorical self by means of a very solid body of texts. Educationalists and schoolteachers in antiquity relied on Cicero's oratory to supervise the growth of the young into intellectual maturity. By reconstructing the main phases of textual transmission, from the first authorial dissemination of the speeches to the medieval manuscripts, and by re-examining the abundant evidence on Ciceronian scholarship from the first to the sixth century CE, Cicero and Roman Education traces the history of the exegetical tradition on Cicero's oratory and re-assesses the 'didactic' function of the speeches, whose preservation was largely determined by pedagogical factors.

This lovely book uses metaphors to convey the extraordinary complexity of what happens when we read—and to describe how important it is to pause and read deeply. As Wolf notes: “whenever we name even a single letter, we are activating entire networks of specific neuronal groups in the visual cortex, which correspond to entire networks of equally specific language-based cell groups, which correspond to networks of specific articulatory-motor cell groups—all with millisecond precision.
“It takes years for deep-reading processes to be formed, and as a society we need to be sure that we are vigilant about their development in our young from a very early age. It takes daily vigilance by us, the expert readers of our society, to choose to expend the extra milliseconds needed to maintain deep reading over time.”
This is a book well worth reading, if only to remind us of the value of reading slowly and deeply.

近年来关于建立中国语言能力等级共同量表的问题引起了国内学界的重视。
制定统一的语言能力等级量表，其实质就是制定统一的规格，涉及测试项目的开发，涉及资格认证，也涉及教学过程组织、教材开发，可以说涉及与语言教学、语言测试有关的一切方面。
制定我国语言能力等级量表必须从社会需求出发，注重科学性、实用性和可操作性。在方法上以交际语言能力理论为理论基础，对听、说、读、写能力分别进行“能做”描述。语言能力描述语是语言测试和语言教学的基本操作工具，语言能力描述语是语言能力理论的具体体现，语言能力描述语为语言测试和语言教学提供基本框架。
《中国语言能力等级共同量表研究——理论、方法与实证研究》对建立我国语言能力等级共同量表的理论和方法进行了全面的探讨，并通过口语“能做”描述语实证研究的数据分析证明对描述语进行量化分析并进而划分语言能力等级是可行的。
《中国语言能力等级共同量表研究——理论、方法与实证研究》由杨惠中、朱正才、方绪军著。

《语言测试的设计与评估》：An understanding of the principles of test construction has become increasingly important for many people involved in language teaching. This book, by three leading professionals.clearly describes and illustrates up-to-date principles of test design, construction and evaluation. Each chapter deals with one stage of the test construction process; drawing up specifications writing test items, test papers and moderation trialing draft tests training test markers and administrators monitoring examiner reliability reporting results validation writing reports on tests feedback, research and improving/developing tests In the final chapter, current practice in the examining of English as a foreign language(EFL) Language Test Construction and Evaluation will be invaluable for anyone who wishes to understand how language tests are , and should be ,constructed.