Definition 1

"Language Testing is the practice and study of evaluating the proficiency

of an individual in using a particular language effectively."
Priscilla Allen, University of Washington.
(Winning entry from the 2009/10 "definition" competition run on this
website)
Definition 2
"The activity of developing and using language tests. As a psychometric
activity, language testing traditionally was more concerned with the
production, development and analysis of tests. Recent critical and ethical
approaches to language testing have placed more emphasis on the uses
of language tests. The purpose of a language test is to determine a
persons knowledge and/or ability in the language and to discriminate that
persons ability from that of others. Such ability may be of different kinds,
achievement, proficiency or aptitude. Tests, unlike scales, consist of
specified tasks through which language abilities are elicited. The term
language assessment is used in free variation with language testing
although it is also used somewhat more widely to include for example
classroom testing for learning and institutional examinations."
Alan Davies, University of Edinburgh.
Definition 3
"In the context of language teaching and learning, 'assessment' refers to
the act of collecting information and making judgments about a language
learner's knowledge of a language and ability to use it."
Carol Chapelle and Geoff Brindley, Universities of Iowa State and
Macquarie.
Definition 4
I have to say that this is my personal favourite.
"It is a species of sortition infinitely preferable to the ancient method of
casting lots for honours and offices."
F. Y. Edgeworth, in his 1888 paper The Statistics of Examinations.
Founding Documents of Modern Language Testing
Sometimes complex phenomena like language testing are explained in
relation to their roots. It is often said that modern language testing dates
to 1961, because this was the date of the publication of the first book on
language testing by Robert Lado, and a paper setting out the scope of
language testing by J. B. Carroll. Below are two PDF documents. One is a
short extract from the beginning of Lado's Language Testing , and the
second is Carroll's

Fundamental Considerations in Testing for English Language Proficiency of

Foreign Students .
Lado : extracts from Language Testing
Carroll : Fundamental Considerations in Testing
On this website you can explore many of the concepts underlying the
modern practice of language testing. A useful place to start is by watching
our short videos on key ideas in language testing .
Other Websites
Wikipedia has an entry on language testing. This is its current definition:
"Language Assessment or Language Testing is a field of study under the
umbrella of applied linguistics. Its main focus is the assessment of first,
second or other language in the school, college, or university context;
assessment of language use in the workplace; and assessment of
language in the immigration, citizenship, and asylum contexts."
This is attributed to the 2008 edition of the
Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Vol 7., Language Testing and
Assessment .
Test Preparation
Tests have been used for as long as there has been organised education
to make decisions about who is able to undertake certain tasks in society.
The earliest references that I have discovered to selection "trials" is in
Plato's Republic . As you will see in the scenarios below, the use of tests
for selection impacts upon jobs, education, and many other roles in life.
This means that test scores have economic value. This is not a new
observation. The following quotation is from the 19th Century:
"Parents want something to shew for education; a place in an examination
list seems to gauge the advantage which they have paid for, and besides
it frequently has a positive market value as opening the door to some
emolument or profession" (Latham, 1887, p. 23).
It is therefore inevitable that the use of tests will generate "satellite
industries", the larges of which is test preparation. Latham was the first to
refer to schools that specialised in test preparation as "crammers". We still
use the word today. However, there is such a thing as ethical test
preparation. For further information on test preparation for some of the
larger tests, and for the purposes of immigation, visit the
Test Preparation Information Pages
Language Testing Scenarios
Definitions and key texts are useful to understand a topic. Perhaps even
more powerful are scenarios where language testing is an important
ingredient in decision making. Below are six scenarios, each of which

provides information on the language issues at stake, and presents

questions for discussion, debate, and further study.
Aviation English Testing Call