ABSTRACT
It is an unfortunate truth that those who populate the world of foreign language education divide themselves into two camps, which rarely meet except on the verbal battlefield. They are the Teachers and the Testers. When they do meet in battle, the Teachers are inclined to say things like ‘Let’s learn to teach before we learn to test’ and (unkindest cut of all) ‘We deal with people, you deal with statistics’. The Testers on the other hand sometimes regard the Teachers as rather a vague lot, well-meaning perhaps, but who tend to be unspecific about their aims and objectives, and on finding out whether they have been met. As a result, Testers and Teachers may sit in different parts of the staff common room. Perhaps the Testers think the Teachers are talking over coffee about whether Maria and Giovanni in Class 1 are dating, while the Teachers may suppose that the Testers are discussing what mark out of to to give their coffee – for flavour, price, and overall quality.
