ELT Journal Volume 59/2 April 2005 © Oxford University Press
Teachers, testers, and the research enterprise—a slow meeting of minds
Geoff Perrin is Head of Teacher Training at the German Government Language Centre (Bundessprachenamt) in Hürth, near Cologne. Among his special interests are the use of concordancers with text corpora, and language testing. Since his remit at the Bundessprachenamt extends to teacher recruitment, he is also very interested in the whole issue of professionalism in the EFL field. Email: geoffperrin{at}web.de
Starting from the premise that the teaching profession tends to view formal assessment procedures with some misgivings, the following article attempts to develop the argument that the problem is, at least in part, one of too narrow a perspective. A case study is first described involving the trialling of a vocabulary test at a language teaching centre in South Germany. In discussing the results, it is then suggested that teachers need to recognize the wider function of tests as research instruments capable of providing important insights into teaching and learning. This in turn, it is proposed, might lay the foundation for a more fruitful cooperation between teachers and testers.
Revised February 2004.