Doctors’ orders for language testers: the origin and purpose of ethical codes

Abstract

Accountability in language testing, as in other professions, requires openness to stakeholders. Professions are increasingly publishing a Code of Ethics which sets out the principles governing the conduct of their members. The long tradition of medicine’s use of a Code of Ethics is discussed and the arguments in that profession with regard to openness is considered. The International Language Testing Association (ILTA) has recently agreed its own Code of Ethics (see Appendix 1). This article considers how far this Code of Ethics makes language testing an open profession and notes the dangers of face validity and of hypocrisy. The article then discusses the need for a Code of Practice to provide detailed guidance to language testers with regard to their professional responsibilities. It is concluded that: • it is unlikely that an international organization could develop one universal Code of Practice, given the demands of enforceability and relativism; and • that the way forward may be to encourage local Codes of Practice. Caution is, however, necessary, given the possibility of tension between relativism and modernity, such that a local Code of Practice could become an alternative Code of Ethics.