语言测试的社会学思考

The sociology of language testing

大规模、高风险考试的设计者有很重的社会责任,因为许多年轻人的未来取决于考试结果。他们必须尽一切可能保证自己所开发的考试对考生的语言能力提供准确、客观和公正的测量。一项好的考试还应当对教学有好的反拨作用,对社会有好的影响。但是考试的后效取决于许多考试之外的因素。考试的社会权重越大,作弊与应试教育的倾向越严重,这跟题型和考试内容无关。从考试社会学的角度来看,决定考试社会权重的因素常常超出语言测试工作者的控制范围,尤其是当考试成为一种体现政策的工具的时候,此时改进考试后效需要更高层次的决策,包括考试各相关方的正确对待。

The designers of a large-scale high-stakes test shoulder heavy social responsibilities, because the future of many young people lies with the results of the test. They therefore must do what they can to ensure that the measurement of the candidate's English proficiency is accurate, objective, and fair. A good test should also have a positive washback effect on teaching and beneficial impact on society. Various factors, however, are responsible for the washback effect and social impact of a test, many of which are out of the control of language testers. The dilemma for the language tester is that the better professional quality of a public test, the greater the liability of its being misused. Our experience shows that the so-called negative washback effect is mainly caused by the social weight a public test carries, and has little to do with the item types and the test content. Therefore, all the stake-holders should share their responsibility for the avoidance of misuse of the test results. The language tester's responsibility is to provide the public with transparency and documentation of a test on what is measured, through the dissemination of explicit standards, content outlines, theoretical frameworks and score interpretation materials.