Jeremy Harmer ELT

Recently I was asked to do a survey of some of the Cambridge Elements for Language Teachers for the ELT Journal (Harmer 2025) and one of the titles I looked at was Assessment in Language Teaching (Phakiti & Leung 2024). It sets out some of the basic issues in assessment but, and perhaps uniquely (and surprisingly in many ways, but that’s for another discussion), it includes some links to videos which are fiercely anti-testing for a number of reasons. Linda Darling-Hammond from Standford University, for example, rails against the pernicious effects  of modern testing. Then there’s Chris Quickenbrush from the Florida Citizens Alliance explaining why standardized tests are a disaster (and do you remember the 9-year old laying into testing in front of a school board in – you guessed it – Florida, 9 years ago?). Among many other vídeo links which veered between practical advice and concept-explaining was one questioning concepts such as validity and reliability by Dylan Williams (you can check out many of his videos on testing if you go to Youtube). The one that stood out for me, however, was a TedEx talk given by Karen Leung talking about embracing and eradicating linguistic bias. In a powerfully and emotionally argued piece about immigrant bi-linguals she makes the point that “what we say is far more important than how we say it” 

As I think of writing about assessment yet again for an up-to-date methodology project I have to work out, (yet again!) where I position myself in the testing-teaching firmament? It would be tempting to claim that all tests (especially high-stakes tests like end-of-year assessment in order to progress, exam-qualification tests, public exams like The Cambridge Proficiency test TOEFL etc) were the spawn of the devil and focus obsessively on accuracy (see Karen Yeung above),go into a corner and sit comfortably in an alternative education universe, responding only with my heart rather than my head. But my head says that I can’t ignore that fact that education systems need to measure how effective they are, or that preparing for tests can be highly motivating for some learners (but most definitely not all) or that clutching a recognized qualification can be very helpful in trying to gain employment. I am also aware that a whole multitude of good, intelligent, expert people work tirelessly to improve testing both statistically and also in terms of content and relevance.

Ah, says the devil on my shoulder, but don’t they make a mountain of cash from doing that? Obviously bad says someone who has depended on selling books!!!

So as you can see, I am confused. Would anyone care to help me out?

Harmer, J (2025) Survey Review. Cambridge Elements for Language teachers. ELT Journal 79/2.  Oxford University Press.

Phakiti, A & Leung, C (2024) Assessment for Language Teaching. Cambridge Essentials for Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.