This book advocates that teachers should play an active role in high-stakes language testing and that more weight should be given to teacher judgement. This is likely to increase the formative potential of high-stakes tests and provide teachers with a sense of ownership. The implication is that the knowledge and skills they develop by being involved in these tests will feed into their own classroom practices. The book also considers the arguments against teacher involvement, e.g. the contention that teacher involvement might entrench the practice of teaching to the test, or that teachers should not be actively involved in high-stakes language testing because their judgement is insufficiently reliable. Using contributions from a wide range of international educational contexts, the book proposes that a lack of reliability in teacher judgement is best addressed by means of training and not by barring educators from participating in high-stakes language testing. It also argues that their involvement in testing helps teachers to bolster confidence in their own judgement and develop their assessment literacy. Moreover, teacher involvement empowers them to play a role in reforming high-stakes language testing so that it is more equitable and more likely to enhance classroom practices. High-stakes language tests that adopt such an inclusive approach facilitate more effective learning on the part of teachers, which ultimately benefits all their students.
Daniel Xerri is a Lecturer in TESOL at the University of Malta, and the Chairperson of the
ELT Council within the Ministry for Education and Employment in Malta. He sits on
IATEFL’s Conference Committee and on TESOL International Association’s Research
Professional Council. Between 2015 and 2017, he was the Joint Co-ordinator of the IATEFL
Research SIG. Xerri holds postgraduate degrees in English and Applied Linguistics, as well as
a PhD in Education from the University of York. He is the author of many publications on
different areas of education, assessment and TESOL, including articles published in ELT
Journal, English in Education, and International Journal of Research and Method in
Education. Further details about his work can be found at: www.danielxerri.com
Patricia Vella Briffa currently teaches at the University of Malta Junior College. She has
taught English to learners at various stages of language learning for general, specific,
examination, or academic purposes. She holds a PhD from the University of Nottingham.
Her research interests include language teaching and assessment. She was engaged in the
design of a speaking component in the MATSEC ‘A’ level English examination, which was
awarded the Innovation in Assessment Prize by the British Council in 2014.
