English Language Testing in Higher Education of Pakistan

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONIn the past testing and teaching were deemed as two separate entities. This is the reason that efforts to set directions and foci required for making them productive remained unsuccessful until the emergence of English as an International Language (EIL). It was this development that pushed the concept of language testing forward to the re-conceptualization and upholding their inseparable relationship. This correlation becomes a core issue when it comes to English language learners and is impossible to analyze either of them without referring to the other (Heaton, 1988). The aim of this paper is to help English language coordinators understand the concomitant role of decentralized testing and to create positive effects on classroom teaching. To squeeze all that goes under centralized language testing within the confines of the present paper would be neither possible nor desirable.