| In this talk, David examines the link between the English language exams that school students take nowadays (and tests that they have had inflicted upon them over the past half century). He will look at how the different exams match up (or otherwise) with what we might see as ‘real’ English, and how the exams help prepare students for using English in the real world. David will present a picture of what English language tests have consisted of over the past half century and how English language exams have moved and developed with the times. Given his background, his examples are drawn from his long association with assessment in Hong Kong. While the context is Hong Kong, participants may reflect against how David’s presentation resonates (or otherwise) with their own experience. As a point of reference, David will frame issues within the context of some standard test quality ‘concepts’. He will present some snapshots of what the testing scene in Hong Kong looked like one decade at a time, framing the snapshots where possible against a test quality concept. |
