Decolonizing English language testing

Abstract

Testing practices and the construct of English both serve separately and interactionally to promote activities of modernity and coloniality. Tests categorize and rank learning and knowledge in discrete, static ways. The construct of the English language through standardization and other processes upholds linguistic purism ideologies. Such concerns in both areas lead to the guiding question: What and whose purposes are being served with testing in English? In engaging with this question, the author posits that decolonizing approaches to testing and the construct of English are needed. In this article, she presents assessment practices developed within Indigenous learning contexts that can inform general approaches to assessment and language with implications for English language testing. In doing so, the article offers actions toward imaginative and creative reconfigurations of English testing according to epistemologies of communities that have confronted colonialist activities.