Accountability and External Testing Agencies
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Volume two, Issue one
February 2012
Accountability and External Testing Agencies EDWARD SARICH Shizuoka University, Japan Bio Data: Edward Sarich has been working in the field of language education for more than 15 years. He taught junior and senior high school for 7 years in Hamamatsu Japan. While completing an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Birmingham, in 2010, Edward began working as a language instructor at Shizuoka University. He is especially interested in issues concerning language pedagogy in Japan, particularly regarding language planning policy, standardized testing, evaluation, and communicative language teaching. Abstract Standardized testing is ubiquitous in Japan. Inexpensive and easily mass distributed, their use has been encouraged at every level of the education system. Over the past thirty years, external testing agencies have been increasingly relied upon to make standardized tests for use as benchmarks in the education system and in the private sector. However, while great trust has been placed in these agencies that create these tests, many of them operate with very little supervision. This article will review the practices of some of the commonly used external testing agencies in Japan and discuss how greater accountability from these agencies might not only improve test validity, but make them more useful for score users and test takers. Keywords: language, testing, standardized tests, external agencies, TOEIC, EIKEN Introduction The use of standardized tests in the evaluation of language proficiency is a much debated topic. Although in general great faith has been placed in them as objective and consistent measures of assessment, they have recently faced mounting criticism due to the negative impact that they can exert on language education. In Japan, 26 | P a g e
Language Testing in Asia
Volume two, Issue one
February 2012
however, standardized language testing has become increasingly commonplace. Policy planners have begun recommending their use as benchmarks in the secondary education system, and, in the private sector, standardized language test scores are more and more being linked with promotion and advancement. However, despite their popularity, little is actually known about how these tests are made. One of the hallmarks of standardized tests is that they are produced not by teachers but by external testing agencies. Although this practice brings with it many advantages, mostly by way of offering objectivity and reliability, it is not without its issues. This article will explore the use of standardized tests throughout Japan, examining why they are commonly relied upon, how they have .exerted an influence on English education in Japan, and some recommendations for how the use of standardized tests in Japan might be more effectively utilized. What is a Standardized Test? Bachman (1990, p. 74) defines standardized tests as those that are made from fixed content, that are administered according to uniform procedures, and whose validity and reliability are thoro
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