Examiner Behaviour

Section 1: Ethics of Examiners

Whether acting as a rater (the person scoring a test) or interlocutor (delivering the
test), it is important that everyone abides by particular codes of conduct to ensure
that candidates are being treated fairly.

One such code is that developed by the International Language Testing Association
(ILTA):

https://www.iltaonline.com/page/CodeofEthics

Many test providers ask that their examiners sign up to such a code before they are
allowed to work on testing.

This code of conduct includes, among other things, an undertaking to respect the
dignity of their test takers, treating them with the same professional courtesy
irrespective of race, gender, age and so on.

It is worthwhile reading through the ILTA code of ethics, and the annotations
provided, to consider the implications of the work of an examiner.

Section 2: Guidelines for Practice

In addition to the ethics that individual examiners are supposed to maintain, there
are more widely-dispersed principles that test providers (and those who work for
them) should also uphold. Again, another good source of these is the ILTA website:

https://www.iltaonline.com/page/ILTAGuidelinesforPractice

Many of these principles have been adopted into ICAO’s own Document 9835: for
example, that test developers should make clear which construct the test, and its
sub-parts, are intended to measure, and should make clear what research has been
done into the reliability and validity of the test.

Lenguax endeavours to uphold these principles, and statements about the reliability
and validity of TEAC can be found at https://www.lenguax.com/reliability-and-
validity/

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 Section 3: Test Reliability - Interlocutors

TEAC is intended to measure, among other things, human interaction. The role of the
interlocutor, then, is crucial to the success of the test. There are some ways that an
interlocutor can influence the test, positively or negatively. Here is some of the advice
we offer during our interlocutor training:

Be friendly

It’s important to create a comfortable atmosphere in the test room. Examiners should
be supportive, while not unfairly assisting candidates.

Do not assist candidates

It’s natural to want to help candidates who are obviously struggling by, for
exampling, helping them to finish sentences

Follow procedures

Everything an interlocutor does or says during a test is scripted, except for follow-up
questions. It’s important to give each candidate as similar an experience as possible.

Respect timings

It’s a threat to test reliability if timings are not respected. Each part of the test has a
minimum and maximum duration.

Do not give positive feedback

Any feedback should be neutral: “Thank you” is acceptable to indicate that a

candidate has completed a task, but “Good” or “Great” are not.

Pay attention

Interlocutors should pay attention to candidate’s answers. This helps them to

generate useful follow-up questions, but also encourages an atmosphere of human
interaction. It is more difficult to speak when the person listening to you is
indifferent to what you’re saying.

Do not take notes

Interlocutors who take notes in view of the candidate can be very distracting.

Elicit a full language sample

The main priority for the interlocutor is to get as full a language sample as possible,
to assist the rater. This means giving the candidate every opportunity to complete
the tasks, as long as this is done consistently and fairly.

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 Section 4: Example Interlocution

Some samples of interlocutor behaviour are available on the website, to illustrate

some of these concepts.

© COPYRIGHT. LENGUAX ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING, TESTING & RESEARCH LIMITED.

WWW.LENGUAX.COM