Developments in Language Testing with the Focus on Ethics

Abstract

Language tests have become powerful tools, because they are used to measure the success of individuals in different aspects of life. Despite their influence on the lives of individuals taking them, only in the last decades have language theorists started to raise questions of high sensitivity. Tests were considered as purely linguistic acts, therefore very little attention was paid to the social dimension of language as the most important medium of communication among humans. With the advent of integrative testing, and later communicative language testing, linguists became more conscious of the social impact that such tests have. The following article brings a general overview of the history of language testing, the questions that were raised in each phase of theoretical development, as well as further exploration of ethics in language testing.

Keywords: psychometric-structuralist, gatekeeper, communicative approach, ethical approach, alternative assessment