The Sociopolitics of English Language Testing

Highlighting marginalized but significant perspectives about the sociopolitical essence of English language tests and testing processes worldwide, this book explores the social considerations of testing theories and practices from a critical perspective. Investigating concerns surrounding power inequalities, The Sociopolitics of English Language Testing takes a socially-situated view of language assessment, bringing sociopolitical understandings of language teaching, learning, and assessment to the forefront in the field. Within the broader discussion of the politics of test use, an international team of language and education experts address the issues of ideology, diversity, power, and dominance in English language testing. Through socially-sensitive theoretical as well as empirical discussion and investigation of English language testing, this book offers valuable insights, not only to applied linguists and the language education community who have focused on positivistic and cognitively-oriented conceptions of language testing, but to anyone who wishes to venture beyond the traditional bounds of the field.

Table of Contents:
Preface, Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini, Alzahra University, Iran and Peter I. De Costa, Michigan State University, USA Foreword, Paula Winke, Michigan State University, USA PART ONE: THE IDEOLOGIES OF TESTING IN ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES 1. Who me? Hailing Individuals as Subjects: Standardized Literacy Testing as an Instrument of Neo-Liberal Ideology, John Yandell, University College London, UK, Brenton Doecke, Deakin University, Australia and Zamzam Abdi, University College London, UK 2. Standardized Testing and School Achievement: The Case of Indigenous-Language Speaking Students in Remote Australia, Leonard A. Freeman, University of Melbourne, Australia and Gillian Wigglesworth, University of Melbourne, Australia 3. Where Language is Beside the Point: English Language Testing for Mexicano Students in the Southwestern US, Luis E. Poza, University of Colorado Denver, USA and Sheila M. Shannon, University of Colorado Denver, USA 4. Language Testing in Service-Learning: A Critical Approach to Socially-Situated Language-in-Use, Netta Avineri, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, USA and James Perren, Alliant International University San Diego, USA 5. Moving Beyond Deficit Positioning of Linguistically Diverse Test Takers: Bi/multilingualism and the Essence of Validity, Jamie L. Schissel, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA PART TWO: THE POLITICS OF TESTING IN THE NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING WORLD 6. The Coloniality of English Language Testing, Ruanni Tupas, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 7. Reforming Foreign Language Teaching Policy in Japan: The Politics of ‘Standardization’, Masaki Oda, Tamagawa University, Japan 8. Sociopolitical Factors Surrounding the Rise and Demise of the National English Ability Test (NEAT) in South Korea, Gwan-Hyeok Im, Queen’s University, Canada, Liying Cheng, Queen’s University, Canada and Dongil Shin, Chung-Ang University, South Korea 9. The Disconnect between English Tests and English Proficiency: Two South Korean Jobseekers’ Perceptions and Performances, Miso Kim, Pennsylvania State University, USA and Mari Haneda, Pennsylvania State University, USA 10. Sanctioning the IELTS for Enrolling in ELT: A Critical Perspective from Oman, Ali Al-Issa, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman 11 .Neoliberal Placemaking and Ideological Constructions of Standardized Tests in Nepal’s Linguistic Landscape, Prem Phyak, Tribhuvan University, Nepal Afterword, Constant Leung, King’s College London, UK Index

About the Author :
Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini is Associate Professor of English Language Education at Alzahra University, Iran. Peter I. De Costa is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Education at Michigan State University, USA.

Review :
[The Sociopolitics of English Language Testing] is an excellent starting point for researchers and educators interested in testing and assessment, as well as for those who wish to learn how to be sensitive to the long-used and accepted standardized tests and how to bring about change. It brings a fresh and critical perspective that merits further investigation. This timely volume answers the urgent call for studies of the impact of language testing regimes in contexts throughout the world. It reveals the need for language assessment research to engage more fully with the social, political and ideological contexts in which language assessments are implemented, in particular as a tool of globalization. Mirhosseini and De Costa have brought together a fascinating collection of chapters, providing rich, critical insights into the ideological and political nature of language testing practices in different contexts across the world. The studies presented here broaden perceptions of what language testing research might look like and raise fundamental questions about where the field needs to go next.