Chapter 13. Ethical issues in language testing
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Xun Yan
Abstract
Considerable attention has been given to ethical issues in language testing since the 1990s, with several special issues, volumes, and international conferences dedicated to fairness and justice in assessment (Davies, 1997, 2004; Kunnan, 2000; McNamara, Knoch, & Fan, 2019). In this chapter we review existing work, focusing on how ethical issues can arise at any stage of the assessment process — from initial test development through test administration, test scoring, and test use. Each of these four stages requires different quality control procedures to ensure fairness and ethical standards, namely, (1) fairness review during test development; (2) accommodations during test development; (3) bias analysis after test scoring; and (4) communication with stakeholders about ethical test use. Informed by ethical codes of practice created by language testing associations (e.g., the International Language Testing Association (ILTA) Code of Ethics), we provide specific examples to show steps that can be taken in each phase to ensure that ethical standards are upheld. Examples of ethical issues and the corresponding quality control procedures in this chapter are taken from a local, university-based English speaking test in the US. While some of the quality control procedures require language or pedagogy-related content expertise, others require specialized knowledge and skills in measurement and statistics. Finally, we conclude by recommending best practice to guide test developers and test users. We argue that assurance of ethical standards in language testing requires collaboration between language testers and other stakeholders.
Abstract
Considerable attention has been given to ethical issues in language testing since the 1990s, with several special issues, volumes, and international conferences dedicated to fairness and justice in assessment (Davies, 1997, 2004; Kunnan, 2000; McNamara, Knoch, & Fan, 2019). In this chapter we review existing work, focusing on how ethical issues can arise at any stage of the assessment process — from initial test development through test administration, test scoring, and test use. Each of these four stages requires different quality control procedures to ensure fairness and ethical standards, namely, (1) fairness review during test development; (2) accommodations during test development; (3) bias analysis after test scoring; and (4) communication with stakeholders about ethical test use. Informed by ethical codes of practice created by language testing associations (e.g., the International Language Testing Association (ILTA) Code of Ethics), we provide specific examples to show steps that can be taken in each phase to ensure that ethical standards are upheld. Examples of ethical issues and the corresponding quality control procedures in this chapter are taken from a local, university-based English speaking test in the US. While some of the quality control procedures require language or pedagogy-related content expertise, others require specialized knowledge and skills in measurement and statistics. Finally, we conclude by recommending best practice to guide test developers and test users. We argue that assurance of ethical standards in language testing requires collaboration between language testers and other stakeholders.
Chapters in this book
- 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword ix
- Introduction 1
-
Section I. Methodological approaches
- Chapter 1. A taxonomy of questionable research practices in quantitative humanities 10
- Chapter 2. Corpus linguistics and ethics 28
- Chapter 3. Ethical issues in educational action research 45
- Chapter 4. Doing research in culturally and linguistically diverse K-12 classrooms 59
- Chapter 5. Ethical considerations for research involving computer-assisted language learning, social media, and online environments 72
- Chapter 6. Transcription as ethics 87
- Commentary on Section I 110
-
Section II. Specific populations and research contexts
- Chapter 7. The zero-sum game of beneficence 122
- Chapter 8. Ethical research with adult migrant language learners 136
- Chapter 9. Ethics in heritage language education 155
- Chapter 10. The ethics of indigenous language revitalization 172
- Chapter 11. “Where you from, who’s your Mob?” 192
- Commentary on Section II 210
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Section III. Pedagogy and policy
- Chapter 12. Ethical research considerations in classroom and online spaces with bilingual students and their teachers 218
- Chapter 13. Ethical issues in language testing 235
- Chapter 14. Navigating ethical challenges in L2 writing in transnational higher education 249
- Chapter 15. Challenges of justice and equity for ethical English as an additional language in school education 266
- Commentary on Section III 285
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Section IV. Personal and interactive aspects of research and scholarship
- Chapter 16. Managing publication expectations and collaborations 296
- Chapter 17. Ethical dilemmas of graduate students negotiating new roles and responsibilities 310
- Chapter 18. Research ethics and decisions 328
- Chapter 19. The ethical gray area 341
- Commentary on Section IV 355
- Afterword 364
- 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 371
Chapters in this book
- 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword ix
- Introduction 1
-
Section I. Methodological approaches
- Chapter 1. A taxonomy of questionable research practices in quantitative humanities 10
- Chapter 2. Corpus linguistics and ethics 28
- Chapter 3. Ethical issues in educational action research 45
- Chapter 4. Doing research in culturally and linguistically diverse K-12 classrooms 59
- Chapter 5. Ethical considerations for research involving computer-assisted language learning, social media, and online environments 72
- Chapter 6. Transcription as ethics 87
- Commentary on Section I 110
-
Section II. Specific populations and research contexts
- Chapter 7. The zero-sum game of beneficence 122
- Chapter 8. Ethical research with adult migrant language learners 136
- Chapter 9. Ethics in heritage language education 155
- Chapter 10. The ethics of indigenous language revitalization 172
- Chapter 11. “Where you from, who’s your Mob?” 192
- Commentary on Section II 210
-
Section III. Pedagogy and policy
- Chapter 12. Ethical research considerations in classroom and online spaces with bilingual students and their teachers 218
- Chapter 13. Ethical issues in language testing 235
- Chapter 14. Navigating ethical challenges in L2 writing in transnational higher education 249
- Chapter 15. Challenges of justice and equity for ethical English as an additional language in school education 266
- Commentary on Section III 285
-
Section IV. Personal and interactive aspects of research and scholarship
- Chapter 16. Managing publication expectations and collaborations 296
- Chapter 17. Ethical dilemmas of graduate students negotiating new roles and responsibilities 310
- Chapter 18. Research ethics and decisions 328
- Chapter 19. The ethical gray area 341
- Commentary on Section IV 355
- Afterword 364
- 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 371
