Large‐Scale Assessment

Abstract

Large‐scale language assessment affects the lives of millions of test takers every year. As a means of achieving fairness in large‐scale tests and testing practices, language testers have traditionally focused on uniformity and technical quality, and large‐scale language assessment has increasingly been associated with political, bureaucratic, or accountability agendas. However, some scholars suggest that it can serve pedagogic and learning purposes as well. More recently, considerations of large‐scale language assessment have been shaped by a more critical view of the contexts in which it occurs and of the sociopolitical motives it serves.