Assessing English on the Global Stage - The British Council and English Language Testing, 1941-2016 - Authors :
4. The English Language Testing Service: The First Communicative Test, 1975-1989
Assessing English on the Global Stage - The British Council and English Language Testing, 1941-2016 - Authors :
Authors :
Description
Chapter 4 looks at how approaches to the testing and teaching of English were to change radically in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s as a result of a burgeoning interest in the ‘communicative approach’, which focused on how language is used in real life situations. It traces the British Council’s development of the innovative English Language Testing Service (ELTS) test, which was created within this communicative paradigm. Through its significant involvement in developing ELTS, the British Council became the leading authority in this period on how to assess the English proficiency of overseas students wishing to study through the medium of English at tertiary level institutions in the UK. This marked an important adjunct to its long-term facilitative role in helping spread English examinations and more recently British approaches to language testing round the globe.