Testing English at Tertiary Level:

An Overview

Abstract

The universities in Bangladesh, with their autonomous academic systems, formulate, design, and introduce their own course curricula and syllabi for teaching English. Here, the testing methods are crucial-for the success or failure of teaching or learning is determined by testing the students on their acquired knowledge of language. Unfortunately, the proficiency that the learners achieve at graduate and postgraduate levels is painfully disappointing. Students can hardly write a discourse in acceptable English, nor can they speak the language fluently and correctly. This failure is due not only to inefficient teaching methods but also to outdated and century-old testing systems. For language courses, the learners are usually tested on their typical knowledge of some set items of language, especially; they are tested on reading and writing abilities rather than listening and speaking skills. For literature courses, no skill-based test is taken. So, the present research is an endeavor on the existing testing methods to find out the drawbacks and failures of testing English at the tertiary level in Bangladesh. The researcher proposes some new and effective methods of testing which, if considered and introduced, can substantially contribute to upgrading the teaching and testing standards of these higher education institutes.