HE Lianzhen is a professor and director of the Institute of Applied Linguistics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. Her research interests include language testing/assessment and language teaching and has published widely in intentional and Chinese peer-reviewed journals. Her recent work in language testing and assessment is published in Language Testing and Language Assessment Quarterly. She is also director of the National Advisory Board for College Foreign Language Teaching of the Ministry of Education.

      Considered the hometown of exams, language testing didn’t start in China until the late 1970s with the inauguration of English Proficiency Test developed by Prof. Gui Shichun, the founding father of language testing in China.

      The past four decades has witnessed the flourishing in language testing in several areas. Following a brief introduction to the history and current state of language testing in China, the presentation presents a critical review of language testing research on six themes that have aroused the greatest interest from researchers in the country, including 1) test reliability and validity; 2) factors affecting test performance; 3) rating and rating scales; 4) technology and language testing; 5) test washback; and 6) classroom-based assessment. While much interesting work has been done on different themes of language testing in China, there remains a considerable emphasis on the technical side of testing, as opposed to the use, ethics and social impact of testing. In addition to situating the commentary on the studies within the social, cultural and historical contexts of China, this presentation outlines the scholarly contributions of these studies to the wider international field of language learning, teaching and testing. It concludes with recommendations to Chinese scholarship on areas in need of further development over the coming decades.