Is there a Recognition of World Englishes and ELF in International Tests of English?

Abstract

Thousands of non-native speakers have been taking international tests of English administered by long-established testing boards, such as ETC and PEARSON, for a wide range of purposes worldwide. These test-takers represent various Englishes of Outer and Expanding Circle countries. However, there is little information as to the degree to which their Englishes are recognized and represented in the major international tests of English. Thus, this study explores the websites and policy documents of the major international tests of English boards in relation to the kind(s) of Englishes against which they judge their test-takers’ English proficiency either by implication or by explicit statements through a documentary analysis approach. Informed by multimodal analysis of the visual data and content analysis of the textual data on the websites and the relevant documents, the study indicates that there is not much recognition of the diversity of English speakers from non-Anglophone countries and their diverse ways of English use in the tests at the level of practice in particular since they are rather standard English oriented for desired practices. The findings suggest that the testing boards should adjust their rubrics and assessment criteria in line with the current sociolinguistic profile of their test takers whose ways of doing English are relatively different from NESs and standard English norms.