The What, The Why and The How of Testing in The Teaching and Learning of English

Abstract

Testing is the most important component of the English teaching and learning mechanism. It paves the ground for the teacher to evaluate the effectiveness of the syllabus as well as the methods and materials he is employing. It also engages, in a systematic fashion, all the factors that affect learning process. This study proposes dynamic views on the prevalent concepts of testing with a special focus on the matter of Classroom Tests. Moreover, the study aims to make a significant attempt to examine the vital problems concerning test-construction, test-management and test-evaluation, and suggest some practical clues for the redress of emerging problems. The study also puts forth contributory recommendations for making testing procedures more effective and more rewarding. It tends to establish a firm opinion that approaches to testing procedures do not have any demarcation boundary, particularly in view of an array of language testing alternatives and emerging new language testing formats. Therefore, they need to be reviewed, systematized and streamlined from time to time, so that they may pragmatically serve the teaching and learning goals of English as FL/SL. In this study, it is intended to postulate that it is on the basis of the classroom environment, the level of learners, their degree of motivation, and their parameter of interests that the English teacher must make final decisions in promoting modifications and innovations to the ways of testing. Our institutions and universities must also organize training programs and workshops in the areas of testing to offer opportunities to concerning teachers to upgrade their knowledge in the what, why and how of testing.