Abstract
This chapter considers the current state of classroom assessment of English language proficiency and use, and argues for the existence of two often conflicting assessment cultures, a learning culture and an exam culture. This chapter characterizes the key principles and practices in each culture, and suggests that these two cultures stem from differing ideologies that pose great obstacles to reconciliation between effective selection instruments (usually called tests) and humanistic assessment. The chapter suggests that planned innovation in assessment is unlikely to be successful without vastly improved attention to teacher preparation in relation to assessment. It is further proposed that because the principles and practices of the exam culture reflect the dominant ideology in the discourse of educational economics and politics, this domination can only be altered by paying conscious attention to teachers’ voices, particularly through professional development activities conducted as an integral part of the process of establishing value systems for educational assessment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alderson, J. C. (1991). 1990. Bands and scores. In J. C. Alderson and B. North (Eds.), Language testing in the 1990s: The communicative legacy (pp. 71–85). London: British Council/Macmillan.
Alderson, J., & Banerjee, J. (2002). State of the art review: Language testing and assessment, Part 2. Language Teaching, 35(2), 79–113.
Alderson, J., & Hamp-Lyons, L. (1996). TOEFL preparation courses: A study of washback. Language Testing, 13(3), 11–18.
Arkoudis, S., & O’Loughlin, K. (2004). Outcomes anxiety: ESL teachers assessing newly arrived ESL learners. Language Testing, 21(3), 283–303.
Barritt, L., Stock, P., & Clark, F. (1986). Researching practice: Evaluating assessment essays. College Composition and Communication, 37, 315–327.
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education, 5(1), 7–74.
Breen, M., Barratt-Pugh, C., Derewianka, B., House, H., Hudson, C., Lumley, T., & Rohl, M. (1997). Profiling ESL children: How teachers interpret and use national and state assessment frameworks. Canberra: Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs.
Brown, A. (2004). Interviewer variability in oral proficiency interviews. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Brown, A., & Lumley, T. (1997). Interviewer variability in specific-purpose language performance tests. In A. Huhta, V. Kohonen, L. Kurki-Suonio, & S. Luoma (Eds.), Current developments and alternatives in language assessment (pp. 137–150). Jyväskyla: Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskyla.
Cheah, Y-M. (1998). The examination culture and its impact on literacy innovations: The case of Singapore. Language and Education, 12(3), 192–209.
Crocker, L. (2003). Teaching for the test: Validity, fairness, and moral action. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 22(3), 5–11.
Davison, C. (2004). The contradictory culture of classroom-based assessment: Teacher assessment practices in senior secondary English. Language Testing, 21(3), 304–334.
Davison, C. (2006). Views from the chalkface: School-based assessment in Hong Kong. Language Assessment Quarterly, 3(4).
Freire, P. (1971). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seaview.
Fremer, J. (2001, March). Ten things parents want to know about testing. Presidential Address, National Council on Measurement in Education.
Hamp-Lyons, L. (1989). Raters respond to rhetoric in writing. In H. Dechert and G. Raupach (Eds.), Interlingual Processes (pp. 229–244). Tubingen: Gunther Narr.
Hamp-Lyons, L. (1999). Implications of the “examination culture” for (English language) education in Hong Kong. In V. Crew, V. Berry, & J. Hung (Eds.), Exploring diversity in the language curriculum (pp. 133–141). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Education.
Hamp-Lyons, L., Chen, J., & Mok, J. (2001a). Introducing innovation incrementally: Teacher feedback on student writing. ThaiTESOL Bulletin: Selected papers from the 21st Annual ThaiTESOL International Conference, 14(2), 59–66.
Hamp-Lyons, L., Chen, J., & Mok, J. (2001b). Supporting secondary English language teachers and learners: Developing good teaching strategies for giving written feedback on student work; and good learning strategies for effective use of teacher feedback. Report of Project H-ZJ47, submitted to the Language Fund, Hong Kong.
Hamp-Lyons, L., & Condon, W. (2000). Assessing the portfolio: Issues for research, theory and practice. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Hamp-Lyons, L., Hood, S., & Maclennan, C. (2001). Promoting quality teaching in the tertiary context. Higher Education Review, 34(1), 60–76.
Huhta, A. (2003). Contribution to LTEST-L. Retrieved October 12 2003 from LTEST-L@psu.edu.
Huot, B. (2002). (Re)articulating writing assessment for teaching and learning. Logan: Utah State University Press.
Hyland, K., & Hyland, F. (Eds.) (2006). Feedback on ESL writing: Contexts and issues. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lumley, T. (2000). The process of the assessment of writing performance: The rater’s perspective. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Lumley, T., Raso, E., & Mincham, L. (1993). Exemplar assessment activities. In NLLIA (Ed.), NLLIA ESL Development: Language and Literacy in Schools. Canberra: National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia.
McKay, P. (2000). Innovation in English Language Assessment: Looking Towards Long-Term Learning. Selected Refereed Papers from the ILEC 2000 Conference (CD Rom), The University of Hong Kong.
McKay, P., & Scarino, A. (1991). The ESL Framework of Stages. Melbourne: Curriculum Corporation.
McMillan, J. (2003). Understanding and improving teachers’ classroom assessment decision-making: Implications for theory and practice. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 22(4), 34–43.
National Academy of Science Research Council. (2003). Assessment in Support of Instruction and Learning: Bridging the gap between large-scale and classroom assessment: Workshop Report. The National Academies Press. Retrieved Apr. 12, 2004 from http://www.nap.edu/openbook/0309089786/html/.
Newton, P. (2003). The defensibility of national curriculum assessment in England. Research Papers in Education, 18(2), 101–127.
Noble, A., & Smith, M.L. (1994). Measurement-driven reform: Research on policy, practice, repercussion (CSE Technical Report No. 381). Los Angeles: UCLA, National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing.
O’Loughlin, K. (2000). The impact of gender in the IELTS oral interview. In R. Tulloh (Ed.), IELTS Research Reports 2000 (Vol. 3, pp. 1–28). Canberra: IELTS Australia Pty Limited.
Pula, J., & Huot, B. (1993). A model of background influences on holistic raters. In M. Williamson & B. Huot (Eds). Validating holistic scoring for writing assessment (p. 237–265). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Reed, D., & Cohen, A. (2001). Revisiting raters and ratings in oral language assessment. In C. Elder, A. Brown, E. Grove, K. Hill, N. Iwashita, T. Lumley, et al. (Eds.), Experimenting with uncertainty: Essays in honour of Alan Davies. Studies in Language Testing Series (Vol. 11, pp. 82–96). Cambridge: UCLES/Cambridge University Press.
Resnick, L., & Resnick, M. (1992). Assessing the thinking curriculum: New tools for educational reform. In B. Gifford & M. O’Connor (Eds.), Changing assessment: Alternative views of aptitude, achievement and instruction (pp. 37–76). London: Kluwer.
Shohamy, E. (June, 1993). The power of a test: The impact of language testing on teaching and learning. NFL Occasional Papers.
Smith, J. K. (2003). Reconsidering reliability in classroom assessment and grading. Educational measurement: Issues and practice, 22(4), 26–33.
Smith, M. L. (1991). Put to the test: The effects of external testing on teachers. Educational Researcher, 20(5), 8–11.
Smith, M. L. (1993). Reforming schools by reforming assessment: Consequences of the Arizona student assessment program (CSE Technical Report No. 425). Los Angeles: University of California Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST).
Smith, W. (1993). Assessing the reliability and adequacy of using holistic scoring of essays as a college composition placement technique. In M. Williamson & B. Huot (Eds.), Validating holistic scoring for writing assessment: Theoretical and empirical foundations (pp. 152–205). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Spolsky, B. (1995). The examination-classroom backwash cycle: Some historical cases. In R. Berry, V. Berry, & D. Nunan (Eds.), Bringing about change in language education (pp. 55–66). Hong Kong: Dept of Curriculum Studies, The University of Hong Kong.
Stiggins, R. (2001). The unfulfilled promise of classroom assessment. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 20(3), 5–15.
Teasdale, A., & Leung, C. (2000). Teacher assessment and psychometric theory: A case of paradigm crossing? Language Testing, 17(2), 163–184.
Torrance, H., & Pryor, J. (1998). Investigating formative assessment: Teaching, learning and assessment in the classroom. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Wall, D. (2000). The impact of high-stakes testing on teaching and learning: Can this be predicted or controlled? System, 28(4), 499–509.
Wiliam, D. (2001). An overview of the relationship between assessment and the curriculum. In D. Scott (Ed.), Curriculum and assessment (pp. 165–181). Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing.
Wiliam, D. (2003). National Curriculum assessment: How to make it better. Research Papers in Education, 18(2), 129–136.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hamp-Lyons, L. (2007). The Impact of Testing Practices on Teaching. In: Cummins, J., Davison, C. (eds) International Handbook of English Language Teaching. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 15. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-46301-8_35
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-46301-8_35
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-46300-1
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-46301-8
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)