Resources

Student Activities

Unit A9: Fairness, Ethics and Standards

Activity 9.1: Talking about impact

http://www.le.ac.uk/education/testing/ilta/faqs/impact56.rm

Watch this video by Elana Shohamy of Tel Aviv University. She has written a very important book that we refer to frequently in our text:

Shohamy, E. (2001) The Power of Tests: A critical perspective on the uses of language tests.” London: Longman.

Listen to Professor Shohamy talking about the concept of Impact, and consider the following focus questions.

• What other terms does Shohamy use to describe imp
• Why does Shohamy argue that tests have power?
• What factors influence the level of test impact?
• How can language tests become 'an arm of policy'?
• Can good tests have negative impact?

Activity 9.2: Codes of Ethics and Practice

Reading Online

One of the ways in which the educational assessment and language testing professionals have tried to deal with unfairness is to develop Standards documents that lay down principles of fair test development and use.

Download the Code of Ethics, developed by the International Language Testing Association, available from this URL: http://www.iltaonline.com/code.pdf.

Many organizations have a Code of Ethics, the oldest being those that guide the practice of medicine in Greece. Look on the web at other Codes of Practice.

Look at these web sites, and google “Code of Ethics” to find others:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_in_Ancient_Greece

http://www.ethicsweb.ca/codes/

Do you think that the ILTA Code of Ethics provides appropriate guidance to the language testing profession? Is there anything missing from the Code that you would like to add?

At the present time, ILTA has never disciplined or expelled a member for a breach of this Code of Ethics. Are you aware of any practices from your own experience, for which you would be prepared to bring an institution or individual before an ILTA Ethics Committee?

Activity 9.3: Describing ‘Fairness’

Reading Online

Click on: http://assets.cambridge.org/052165/1034/sample/0521651034WS.pdf

Kunnan, A. J. (2000) “Fairness and Justice for All.” In Kunnan, A. J. (Ed.) Fairness and Validation in Language Assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Summarize the main issues that Kunnan believes are involved in establishing that a test is “fair”.

For discussion with your colleagues: Do you believe that “fairness” is a matter for the courts?