Language Testing Past and Present

Abstract

Language tests from the distant past to the present are important historical documents. They can help inform us about attitudes to language, language testing and language teaching when little alternative evidence of what went on in the bygone language classroom remains. Seeing where we have come from also helps us better understand where we are today. The Cambridge ESOL Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE) has by far the longest track record of any serious EFL examination still in existence, so it is a particularly useful vehicle for researching where we have come from in European approaches to language teaching and testing over the last century. We will trace some significant events in its history to exemplify the developments in the field during that period (see Weir 2003 for a full history of the CPE).