TITLE:
Ethical Issues in Language Testing from a Validity Perspective
AUTHORS:
Shuling Gao, Jiayi Liu
KEYWORDS:
Validity, Language Testing, Ethics
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.10,
October
31,
2023
ABSTRACT: Ethical issues in language testing have become one of the major research topics and challenges in the field of language testing in the 21st century. Ethics refers to the normative rules governing relationships and behaviors among individuals in human society, as well as the behavior order among people, society, and nations. Any group or professional behavior that affects society as a whole carries inherent ethical requirements. The exploration of ethical issues in language testing began to gain prominence in the field after Messick expanded the concept of validity in language testing. With the development of language testing, researchers have increasingly focused on the study of testing ethics. In 2000, the International Test Commission (ITC) issued a set of “Ethical Guidelines”, where ethical issues were reflected to varying degrees in various principles. In 2007, based on the specific implementation of the “Ethical Guidelines”, the ITC issued corresponding “Code of Conduct” to define the responsibilities and obligations of language testers and test takers. In essence, ethical issues in language testing fall within the scope of validity in language testing. This paper, starting from the current status of research on ethical issues in language testing in China, which is still in its infancy in both theory and practice, uses literature review, descriptive research, and qualitative analysis. Within the framework of validity, it discusses the factors involved in ethical issues in language testing: development of teaching and examination syllabus, test item production, exam preparation and administration, organization of scoring and score interpretation, result statistical analysis, feedback, and summarization. Based on the “Ethical Guidelines” and the corresponding “Code of Conduct” issued by the International Test Commission, it summarizes the causes of ethical issues and proposes corresponding solutions for each phase. Finally, some suggestions are made for the development of ethical issues in language testing.