Trust the test: Score-user perspectives on the roles of language tests in professional registration and skilled migration

Abstract

English language proficiency is a deciding factor in the life opportunities of many thousands of applicants for Australian skilled migration every year. This paper focuses on the perspectives of professional bodies that use English language tests in their decisions. Taking an interpretative approach, we explore the meanings that policy makers from these organisations ascribe (as score users) to test standards (cut-scores) so that we can better understand the uses of test scores in migration policy. The policy narratives we observed around the use of test scores describe the need to manage large numbers of applicants, to assure a level of English proficiency for high-risk professional communications, to provide an objective assessment that is separate from any assessment of professional competence and to maintain consistency of standards with other bodies. These views are contextualised with other relevant information, particularly that available from test providers, who are key players in the test-using interpretive community. We observe that particular tests and their standards become trusted and entrenched in policy, using the apparently simple semiotics of scores. Concomitantly, trust in tests is nurtured by test marketing. These tendencies warrant attention from test researchers, providers and score users.