Abstract:
The paper offers an explanatory account of the progress of academic language
proficiency testing in the U.K. (and later Australia) from the British
Council's English Proficiency Test Battery (EPTB) through the revolutionary
English Language Testing Service (ELTS) to the present compromise
of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). The three
stages of academic language testing in the U.K. over the last 50 years move
from grammar through real life to features of language use. At the same time,
comparison of predictive validities suggests that all three measures account
for very similar shares of the variance (about 10%) and that therefore the
choice of an academic language proficiency test is determined only in part
by predictive validity: other factors, such as test delivery, test renewal in response
to fashion, research and impact on stakeholders, and assessment of
all four language skills, are also important. Implications are drawn for our
understanding of academic language proficiency.
