The Power of Tests: A Critical Perspective on the Uses of Language Tests
The Power of Tests: A Critical Perspective on the Uses of Language Tests
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测试的力量：对语言测试使用的批判性视角
DOI：
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发表时间：
2001
期刊：
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通讯作者：
E. Shohamy
中科院分区：
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作者：
E. Shohamy
社会生活中的语言是一个重要系列，强调语言对于理解社会和专业问题的重要性。对于所有想要了解我们的沟通方式如何影响当代社会制度的结构和力量以及被当代社会制度的结构和力量影响的人来说，这将具有实际意义。在所有现代社会中，个人都必须接受测试，无论是参加教育课程、从一个级别晋级到下一个级别还是授予执业证书。然而，测试是强大的工具，经常以不民主和不道德的方式引入，作为执行各种政策议程的纪律工具。测试可能对人们的生活有害，因为它们能够影响和定义被测试者的知识和行为。 《测试的力量》采用了语言测试的批判性视角，考察了语言测试在教育和社会中的用途和后果，并将测试视为嵌入到社会、教育和政治背景中，而不是孤立的事件。本书分为四个部分：第一部分通过回应考生的声音来确立考试的权力，描述考试权力的特征，以及考试对利用考试获取权力和控制的官僚的诱惑。第二部分报告了一些研究，这些研究提供了有关大量大规模语言测试的意图和效果的经验证据。第三部分通过研究其对教育和社会的影响来解释结果，得出测试使用的模型。本书的最后一部分通过引入批判性语言测试的概念，提供了控制和最大程度地减少测试滥用的策略，该概念要求检查测试的后果和滥用，监控权力并指出其不道德的使用。它还对语言测试人员的责任进行了全面的讨论，包括新的道德准则，以及维护和保护应试者权利的策略。
Language in Social Life is a major series which highlights the importance of language to an understanding of issues of social and professional concern. It will be of practical relevance to all those wanting to understand how the ways we communicate both influence and are influenced by the structures and forces of contemporary social institutions. In all modern societies individuals are subject to tests, whether to enter educational programs, to pass from one level to the next or to grant certificates to practice. Yet, tests are powerful tools which are often introduced in undemocratic and unethical ways as disciplinary tools for carrying out various policy agendas. Tests can be detrimental to people's lives as they are capable of affecting and defining the knowledge and behaviour of those who are being tested. The Power of Tests applies a critical perspective of language tests by examining their uses and consequences in education and society and by viewing tests not as isolated events but rather as embedded in social, educational and political contexts. The book is divided into four parts: the first part establishes the power of tests through echoing the voices of test takers, describing the features of the power of tests, and the temptations that tests offer to bureaucrats who use them for power and control. The second part reports on studies that provide empirical evidence about intentions and effects of a number of large scale language tests. The third part interprets the results by examining their consequences on education and society, arriving at a model of tests' use. The final section of the book offers strategies for controlling and minimising the misuses of tests by introducing the notion of Critical Language Testing which calls for the examination of the consequences and misuses of tests, monitoring of power and pointing to their unethical uses. It also provides a comprehensive discussion of the responsibilities of language testers, including a new Code of Ethics, as well as strategies for guarding and protecting the rights of test takers.