Abstract
This paper examines the purposes, effects, roles, and responsibilities of language assessment. The purposes of assessment include the two types of testing decisions: norm-referenced decisions (including aptitude, proficiency, and placement assessments) and criterion-referenced decisions (including diagnosis, progress, and achievement assessments). The effects of assessment are the positive and negative washback effects of tests on language curriculum. To clarify, the concept of superordinate tests is introduced here and discussed in relationship to the washback effect. The roles of assessment are the many ways in which assessments affect curriculum development, particularly in analyzing students', needs, setting goals and objectives, developing program level tests, producing materials, delivering instruction, and evaluating program effectiveness. The responsibilities of assessment include (a) Messick's notions of the evidential and consequential bases of test interpretation and use and (b) Cronbach's ideas on the functional, political, economic, and explanatory perspectives of questions about testing. As examples, the university entrance examinations in Japan are considered in terms of their purposes, effects, roles, and responsibilities within the larger context of Japanese education and society.
