Continued Concerns with Language Assessment Practices in Saudi Arabian English Education

Abstract

Language assessment, viewed as a means to help instructors guide learners in effectively and successfully learning a language, plays an important role in the skills, competencies, and overall language-learning outcomes of second-language learners. This conceptual article reviews and synthesizes current language assessment practices and issues in English education in Saudi Arabia. It first highlights the overarching features of existing assessment methods practiced in English classrooms in Saudi Arabia, after which it discusses the factors underpinning those assessment practices and the detrimental effects of such practices on the development of Saudi learners of English as a foreign language. The article concludes by proposing a few pedagogical practices with the potential to change current language assessment practices in English classrooms in Saudi Arabia.