English Language Proficiency Testing in Asia: A New Paradigm Bridging Global and Local Contexts

As the demand for English language education grows in Asia, there has been a parallel growth in the development and implementation of standardized tests at the local level. Offering much-needed context on locally produced tests in Asia, contributors examine emerging models for English language assessment and the impact these large-scale tests have on the teaching and learning of English. Chapters address the following well-known and developing high-stakes tests in different regions across Asia: the GEPT, the TEPS, the VSTEP, the CET, the EIKEN and TEAP, and the ELPA.

Brought together by world-renowned testing assessment scholar Cyril Weir and the Language Training and Testing Center (LTTC), one of Asia’s leading testing institutions based in Taiwan, this volume is a useful reference for evaluating, developing, and validating local tests of English and their societal impact. Comprehensive and research-based, chapters cover historic backgrounds, sociocultural contexts, test quality, international standing, and future considerations.

Ideal for graduate students, researchers, and scholars in language assessment, TESOL/TEFL, and applied linguistics, this book will also be of interest to language teaching professionals, language test developers, and graduate students in Asian studies and international education, intercultural communication, and intercultural studies.

Lily I-Wen Su is a distinguished professor of the Graduate Institute of Linguistics at National Taiwan University and Executive Director of the LTTC, a non-profit educational foundation in Taiwan.

Cyril J. Weir (1950-2018) was Professor and Powdrill Chair in English Language Acquisition in CRELLA at the University of Bedfordshire, UK, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Reading, UK.

Jessica R. W. Wu holds a PhD in Language Testing and is the R&D Program Director at the LTTC.