Language assessment as social practice: challenges for research

Abstract

In this article I argue that a growing awareness of the fundamentally social character of language assessment challenges us to rethink our priorities and responsibilities in language testing research. This awareness has been brought about by the treatment of the social character of educational assessment in Samuel Messick’s influential work on validity, and by the intellectual changes triggered by postmodernism, where models of individual consciousness have been reinterpreted in the light of socially motivated critiques. The article concludes by arguing that the institutional character of assessment often means that the needs of learners are not well served by much language assessment theory and practice, and calls for a reexamination of our research priorities.