[lg policy] Language tests as language policy tools

[Harold Schiffman]

Language tests as language policy tools

Author: Elana Shohamy a
Affiliation:   a Tel Aviv University, Israel
DOI: 10.1080/09695940701272948
Publication Frequency: 3 issues per year
Published in: Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice,
Volume 14, Issue 1 March 2007 , pages 117 - 130
Subject: Assessment;
Formats available: HTML (English) : PDF (English)
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Abstract

This paper contextualizes language tests in relation to educational
and national language policies by demonstrating how these language
measures may be used as mechanisms for affecting de facto language
policies. This phenomenon is of special relevance given current
controversies in nation states between multilingual and multicultural
realities and government policies that perpetuate homogenous policies
with regard to national languages. The introduction of language tests
in certain languages delivers messages and ideologies about the
prestige, priorities and hierarchies of certain language(s), and not
others, leading to policies of suppression of diversity. Tests also
influence language policy with regard to the nature of language, as
derived from the criteria used for judging language quality via rating
scales, guidelines and frameworks, thus leading to a view of language
as standardized and homogenous. Yet language tests, when they
incorporate research findings about language learning and language
use, can serve as tools for creating more valid and real language
policies that mediate and negotiate between ideology and practice. The
discussion of these issues is supported by examples from a range of
international contexts in this paper.

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/978758506-47980055/content~db=all~content=a777636785

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