Language Testing in the ‘Hostile Environment’: The Discursive Construction of ‘Secure English Language Testing’ in the UK

Luke Harding,Johann W Unger,Tineke Brunfaut

doi:10.1093/applin/amz017

Abstract

Abstract In parallel with an increased focus on border security in immigration and citizenship policy in the UK (the so-called ‘hostile environment’ policy), Government-approved English language tests for visa and immigration purposes were officially labelled ‘Secure English Language Tests’ (SELTs) in 2010. The proximity of security concerns in language testing with broader national immigration policy objectives suggests a complex role for language tests as gatekeeping devices. This article draws on critical discourse studies to explore this issue. Documents provided in the 2014 tender round for selecting Secure English Language Tests (acquired through a Freedom of Information request) were analysed through a discourse-historical lens (Reisigl and Wodak 2016) to map salient topics and identify discursive strategies used to construct ‘secure English language testing’. Findings show that security is a prominent topic in the tender; prospective bidders are required to meet detailed security requirements and to police subcontractors, and social actors, spaces, objects, policies and procedures are routinely described in securitized terms. Implications are drawn for understanding the role of language tests within broader securitization processes.

Highlights

It has long been recognised that language tests are routinely used to help implement and enforce government policies on immigration and citizenship (Extra, Spotti and Van Avermaet 2009; Hogan-Brun, Mar-Molinero and Stevenson 2009; McNamara, 2009; McNamara and Ryan 2011; Shohamy & McNamara 2009; Shohamy 2001)
A case in point is the emergence of policy surrounding ‘Secure English Language Tests’ ( SELTs) in the United Kingdom
This paper aims to explore the construction of ‘secure English language testing’ by a political institution, the UK Home Office, in a particular set of salient documents – the tender information for bidders to provide SELTs – by drawing on the discourse-historical approach (DHA) within the field of critical discourse studies (CDS)

Summary

Introduction

It has long been recognised that language tests are routinely used to help implement and enforce government policies on immigration and citizenship (Extra, Spotti and Van Avermaet 2009; Hogan-Brun, Mar-Molinero and Stevenson 2009; McNamara, 2009; McNamara and Ryan 2011; Shohamy & McNamara 2009; Shohamy 2001). The prominent focus on security must be understood against the background of UK immigration policy since 2010 which has been designed to reduce net migration figures ‘from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands’ (May 2010). In support of this goal, drastic immigration policies have been implemented with the aim of extending ‘border work’ to a range of professionals. The label ‘secure’ language testing holds symbolic meaning suggesting a conflation between understandings of security both in a more traditional language testing sense and in relation to border and immigration control

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Conclusion