FIRST LANGUAGE TESTING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PERSIAN AND ENGLISH

Whereas the testing of English as Foreign language has been the subject of extensive research, the testing of Persian language remains an uncharted territory. This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a large-scale study which investigated the content of two high-stakes tests of two different languages. One was a test of Persian as a native language (PNL) and the other was a test of English as a native language (ENL). Results showed that the testing of Persian language has remained immune from the scholarship of modern language testing. In other words, the underlying theory of the PNL test is to a great extent structuralist whereas that of the PNL aligns with the category of language theories that give consideration to aspects of context of language use. Furthermore, the PNL test follows a discrete-point approach but the ENL adopts an integrative one allowing for generous context for each test item. Finally, in the PNL test, the only skill tested is comprehension and memorization whereas the ENL exam tests comprehension of both written and spoken discourse as well as writing, all in an integrated fashion. The findings carry implications for the assessment of Persian as well as that of English. Language policy makers concerned with the maintenance of Persian language can also derive profound implications from the findings of the present study.