Towards inclusive publishing practices in language testing: Voices from the Global South

Abstract

This Virtual Special Issue (VSI) was originally intended to be a compilation of past Latin American research papers in the Language Testing journal. Due to the limited number of articles found, this VSI reflects on the underrepresentation of research from Latin America and other Global South regions. Latin American publications account for only 0.6% of the journal’s content. A broader search across 101 other Global South countries revealed similarly low representation, with only 1.7% of all publications from the region. An interview with researchers from the Latin American Association for Language Testing and Assessment (LAALTA) sheds light on potential contributing factors for this underrepresentation. These include the preference for local journals, the fear of rejection from high-ranking international journals, cultural differences in academic literacy, limited resources and challenging working conditions, and geographical isolation. The interviewees offered their recommendations to address these disparities, which include creating dedicated spaces in international journals for Global South research, promoting multilingual publishing, and welcoming diverse academic conventions. Providing accessibility and support to Global South researchers could encourage the number of publications in the journal from the region, and, in turn, the language testing community could benefit by enriching global academic discourse.

Este Virtual Special Issue (VSI, número especial virtual) se concibió originalmente como una recopilación de trabajos de investigación latinoamericanos publicados con anterioridad en la revista Language Testing. Debido al limitado número de artículos encontrados, este VSI reflexiona sobre la escasa representación de la investigación de América Latina y, además, de otras regiones del Sur Global. Las publicaciones latinoamericanas representan solo el 0,6% del contenido de la revista. Una búsqueda más amplia sobre otros 101 países del Sur Global reveló una representación igualmente baja, con solo el 1,7% de todas las publicaciones de la región. Una entrevista con investigadores de la Latin American Association for Language Testing and Assessment (LAALTA, Asociación Latinoamericana de Evaluación de Idiomas) arroja luz sobre los posibles factores que contribuyen a esta infrarrepresentación. Entre ellos se encuentran la preferencia por las revistas locales, el temor al rechazo de las revistas internacionales de alto nivel, las diferencias culturales en la literacidad académica, los recursos limitados y las difíciles condiciones de trabajo académico, así como el aislamiento geográfico. Proporcionar accesibilidad y apoyo a los investigadores del Sur Global podría fomentar el número de publicaciones procedentes de la región en la revista y, a su vez, la comunidad de evaluación de idiomas podría beneficiarse al enriquecer el discurso académico a nivel global.

Keywords

Assessment literacy Global South scholarship language education anguage testing in Latin America localization multilingualism underrepresented contexts

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Currie

Chiramanee

(2010). The effect of the multiple-choice item format on the measurement of knowledge of language structure. Language Testing, 27(4), 471–491. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532209356790

Gebril

(2009). Score generalizability of academic writing tasks: Does one test method fit it all? Language Testing, 26(4), 507–531. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532209340188

Jafarpur

(2003). Is the test constructor a facet? Language Testing, 20(1), 57–87. https://doi.org/10.1191/0265532203lt244oa

Janssen

(2022). Local placement test retrofit and building language assessment literacy with teacher stakeholders: A case study from Colombia. Language Testing, 39(3), 377–400. https://doi.org/10.1177/02655322221076153

López-Gopar

M. E.

(2021). Citizenship in language testing: A call for respectful collaborations. Language Testing, 38(4), 649–653. https://doi.org/10.1177/02655322211022061

Muñoz

A. P.

Álvarez

M. E.

(2010). Washback of an oral assessment system in the EFL classroom. Language Testing, 27(1), 33–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532209347148

Norton

Starfield

(1997). Covert language assessment in academic writing. Language Testing, 14(3), 278–294. https://doi.org/10.1177/026553229701400305

O’Grady

(2019). The impact of pre-task planning on speaking test performance for English-medium university admission. Language Testing, 36(4), 505–526. https://doi.org/10.1177/026553221982660

Phakiti

(2008). Construct validation of Bachman and Palmer’s (1996) strategic competence model over time in EFL reading tests. Language Testing, 25(2), 237–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532207086783

10.

Piper

Zuilkowski

S. S.

(2016). The role of timing in assessing oral reading fluency and comprehension in Kenya. Language Testing, 33(1), 75–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532215579529

11.

Prapphal

(2008). Issues and trends in language testing and assessment in Thailand. Language Testing, 25(1), 127–143. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532207083748

12.

Şahan

Ö.

Razı

. (2020). Do experience and text quality matter for raters’ decision-making behaviors? Language Testing, 37(3), 311–332. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532219900228

13.

Scott

M. L.

(1986). Student affective reactions to oral language tests. Language Testing, 3(1), 99–118. https://doi.org/10.1177/026553228600300105

14.

Toprak

T. E.

Cakir

(2021). Examining the L2 reading comprehension ability of adult ELLs: Developing a diagnostic test within the cognitive diagnostic assessment framework. Language Testing, 38(1), 106–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532220941470

15.

Trace

Janssen

Meier

(2017). Measuring the impact of rater negotiation in writing performance assessment. Language Testing, 34(1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532215594830

16.

Villa Larenas

Brunfaut

. (2023). But who trains the language teacher educator who trains the language teacher? An empirical investigation of Chilean EFL teacher educators’ language assessment literacy. Language Testing, 40(3), 463–492. https://doi.org/10.1177/02655322221134218

17.

Wall

Alderson

J. C.

(1993). Examining washback: The Sri Lankan impact study. Language Testing, 10(1), 41–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/026553229301000103

18.

Wilsenach

Schaefer

(2022). Development and initial validation of productive vocabulary tests for isiZulu, Siswati and English in South Africa. Language Testing, 39(4), 567–592. https://doi.org/10.1177/02655322211063785

19.

Baker

Taylor

(2024a). Language assessment literacy and competence volume 1: Research and reflections from the field. Studies in Language Testing volume 55. Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

20.

Baker

Taylor

(2024b). Language assessment literacy and competence volume 2: Case studies from around the world. Studies in Language Testing volume 56. Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

21.

Bowles

M. A.

(2022). Using instructor judgment, learner corpora, and DIF to develop a placement test for Spanish L2 and heritage learners. Language Testing, 39(3), 355–376. https://doi.org/10.1177/02655322221076033

22.

Brunfaut

Harding

(2018). Teachers setting the assessment (literacy) agenda: A case study of a teacher-led national test development project in Luxembourg. In Xerri

Vella Briffa

(Eds.), Teacher involvement in high-stakes language testing (pp. 155–172). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77177-9_9

23.

Canagarajah

A. S.

(2002). A geopolitics of academic writing (1st ed., Vol. 163). University of Pittsburgh Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjn6c

24.

Collier

(2007). The bottom billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it. Oxford University Press.

25.

Dados

Connell

(2012). The Global South. Contexts, 11(1), 12–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536504212436479

26.

Dimova

Yan

Ginther

(2020). Local language testing: Design, implementation, and development (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429492242

27.

Fairclough

(2011). Testing the lexical recognition task with Spanish/English bilinguals in the United States. Language Testing, 28(2), 273–297. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532210393151

28.

Frank

A. G.

(1967). Capitalism and underdevelopment in Latin America: Historical studies of Chile and Brazil. Monthly Review Press.

29.

Griffin

(2022). The ‘Work-Work Balance’ in higher education: Between over-work, falling short and the pleasures of multiplicity. Studies in Higher Education, 47(11), 2190–2203. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2021.2020750

30.

Group of 77. (n.d.). Member states of the Group of 77. In G-77. https://www.g77.org/doc/members.html

31.

Henrich

Heine

S. J.

Norenzayan

(2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2–3), 61–83. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0999152X

32.

Holzknecht

Kremmel

Konzett

Eberharter

Spöttl

(2018). Potentials and challenges of teacher involvement in rating scale design for high-stakes exams. In Xerri

Vella Briffa

(Eds.), Teacher involvement in high-stakes language testing (pp. 47–66). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77177-9_4

33.

Kahn-Horwitz

Goldstein

(2023). English foreign language reading and spelling diagnostic assessments informing teaching and learning of young learners. Language Testing, 41(1), 60–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/02655322231162838

34.

Kremmel

Eberharter

Holzknecht

Konrad

(2018). Fostering language assessment literacy through teacher involvement in high-stakes test development. In Xerri

Vella Briffa

(Eds.), Teacher involvement in high-stakes language testing (pp. 173–194). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77177-9_10

35.

Lillis

Curry

M. J.

(2010). Academic writing in a global context. Routledge.

36.

Liu

Al-Hoorie

A. H.

Hiver

(2024). Open Access in language testing and assessment: The case of two flagship journals. Language Testing, 41(4), 703–728. https://doi.org/10.1177/02655322241261417

37.

McKinley

Rose

(2018). Conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in English for research publication purposes: An analysis of journal submission guidelines. Journal of Second Language Writing, 42, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2018.07.003

38.

Naidu

Cartmill

Swanepoel

Whitehead

C. R.

(2024). Shapeshifters: Global South scholars and their tensions in border-crossing to Global North. BMJ Global Health, 9, Article e014420. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2023-014420

39.

OECD, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, CAF Development Bank of Latin America, & European Commission. (2024). Perspectivas económicas de América Latina 2024: Financiando el desarrollo sostenible. OECD Publishing.

40.

Piron

(2018). Postcolonial open access. In Herb

Schöpfel

(Eds.), Open divide: Critical studies on open access (pp. 117–128). Litwin Books.

41.

Schissel

J. L.

Leung

Chalhoub-Deville

(2019). The construct of multilingualism in language testing. Language Assessment Quarterly, 16(4–5), 373–378. https://doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2019.1680679

42.

Sichra

Albó

Corrons

X. A.

, UNICEF, Andes

Aecid . (2009). Atlas sociolingüístico de pueblos indígenas en América Latina. www.unicef.org/lac/media/9791/file/PDF%20Atlas%20sociolinguistico%20de%20pueblos%20indígenas%20en%20ALC-Tomo%201.pdf

43.

Stapleton

(2019). Standards of English in academic writing: A response to “conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in English for research publication purposes.” Journal of Second Language Writing, 46, 100–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2019.02.003

44.

Suvorov

(Host). (2010–present). Language testing bytes [Video podcast]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@languagetesting1883

45.

Suvorov

(Host). (2024, December). Interview with Gladys Quevedo Camargo and Gerriet Janssen (no. 40) [Video podcast episode]. In Language testing bytes. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP23wwC2fxw

46.

United Nations. (2014). The Group of 77 at fifty. UN Chronicle, 51(1), 8–9. https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/group-77-fifty

47.

Winke

P. M.

(2023). Forty years of Language Testing, and the changing paths of publishing. Language Testing, 40(1), 3–7. https://doi.org/10.1177/02655322221136802

48.

World Bank. (2025, April). Singapore: Development news, research, data. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/singapore