The importance of language testing is recognized by virtually all professionals in the field of language education. It is of special importance in educational system that is highly competitive as testing is not only an indirect stimulus to learning, but also plays a crucial role in determining the success or failure of an individual’s career with direct implications for his future earning power. “Thus, testing is an important tool in educational research and for programme evaluation, and may even throw light on both the nature of language proficiency and language learning”(Lauwerys and Seanlon, 1969).
Likewise, in the teaching and learning foreign language process, testing takes a very important role. Language testing is one of the most important ways to evaluate how students acquire when they learn a foreign language. Through tests teachers know not only the success or failure of learners but also how well the learners use what they have been taught. Moreover, the learners know what they gain, what they can apply, and what they cannot. Moore (1992, p.138) states: “Evaluation is an essential tool for teachers because it gives them feedback concerning what the students have learned and indicates what should be done next in the learning process. Evaluation helps you to better understand students, their abilities, interests, attitudes and needs in order to better teach and motivate them.” Nga (1997, p.1) reaches the same conclusion: “Tests are assumed to be powerful determiners-of what happens in classroom and it is commonly claimed that they affect teaching and learning activities both directly and indirectly.”
Therefore, testing is an important part of the teaching and learning process; but has it been given adequate attention and careful study yet? Test researchers (Hughes, 1989; Brown, 1995; Read, 1982; Hai, 1999; Tuyet, 1999) in general claim that unfortunately tests have got a bad rap in recent years and not without reason. More often than not, tests are seen by learners “as dark clouds hanging over their heads, upsetting them with thunderous anxiety as they anticipate the lightning bolts of questions they do not know and worst of all a flood of disappointment if they do not make the grade” (Brown, 1994a: p.373). Hughes (1989, p.1) makes another comment on recent language testing: “It cannot be denied that a great deal of language testing is of very poor quality.