Ethics in language testing: International practices and implications for Vietnam

Recent time has witnessed a growing interest in the role of ethics in language testing with two special issues of Language Testing in 1997, Language Assessment Quarterly in 2004, the publication of ILTA Code of Ethics (2000) and two book-length treatments by Shohamy (2001) and McNamara and Roever (2006). However, this issue is still relatively underexplored in Vietnam despite the boom of the ELT industry and the frequent use of language tests in the country. To bridge this critical gap, the presentation will first introduce a working definition of ethics in language testing and then argue why this issue should be regarded as a major item on every language testing agenda. This will be followed by a critical review of practical approaches to ensuring ethical language testing as adopted by prestigious examination boards. Finally, the presentation will examine how such international practices fit in the Vietnamese context, and provide some implications for various stakeholders including but not limited to classroom teachers, teacher trainers, and policy makers.