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this point, it is obvious that a various types of research techniques and methods were employed in different areas
of qualitative and quantitative research.
Likewise, the language testing, as an area of, research has encountered a vast array of methods and approaches
(Bachman, 2000), for example, VELC Test® score interpretations technique used by Kumazawa, Shizuka,
Mochizuki, and Mizumoto (2016); Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)
employed by Sims and Kunnan (2016); action research in Cambridge English Language Test (Borg, 2015;
Watkins, 2015; Depieri, 2015).
The study aims at critically discussing the advantages and disadvantages of using quantitative and qualitative
approaches and methods for language testing and assessment research. The study begins with an introduction to
the background of research methods and approaches (quantitative and qualitative). The introduction is followed
by a brief description of language testing and assessment. Then, it presents the pros and cons of using qualitative
and quantitative approaches and methods; and evaluates the dominant research methods in language testing and
assessment research. Finally, ethical considerations are also pointed out.
2. Language Testing and Assessment
In a general sense, a test is something that demonstrates one’s competence-incompetence, ability-inability; and
that shows someone’s position in the scale consisting of variables such as fail, pass, average, satisfactory, good,
and excellent. An academic test also helps taking an important decision of whether or not a student will be
allowed to move up to the next step. It can check the progress of a student and suggest whether a student needs
more help or not, and allow us to compare the performance between students. The test, furthermore, acts as an
important tool of public policy—such as the national examinations are held in the same standard across the
country to ensure that only the top performers can get admission to the next level of education (Douglas, 2014).
The university admission test (a high stake test) is a tool of this kind. In language testing, the testers are
concerned with the extent to which a test can produce scores that reflect a candidate’s ability accurately in a
specific area, for example, reading, writing a critical essay, vocabulary knowledge, or spoken interaction with
peers (Weir, 2005).
Like all other educational assessments, language testing is a complex social phenomenon (Fulcher, 2010). But it
is a significant aspect in education which affects people’s lives in the society such as—promotion, employment,
citizenship, immigration or asylum depends upon passing a language test. Another consequential factor of
language testing in education is that it dictates what is to be taught (McNamara & Roever, 2006). So, the
discussion so far indicates that the language tests play an important role in many people’s lives (McNamara,
2000). However, many have highlighted the validity and reliability of language testing-for example, Fulcher and
Davidson (2007) claimed that every book and article relating to language testing addresses the test validity to
some extent which is the core concept of testing and assessment. So, a multiple concepts are seen to be involved
in language testing and assessment, and it is a good area of research in education.
3. Qualitative Research Approaches and Methods
Defining qualitative research is significant as it is the central focus of this section—but there is a challenge to
define this term clearly (Ritchie, Lewis, Nicholls, & Ormston, 2013), since it does not have its theory or
paradigm nor an obvious set of methods or practices that are merely of its own (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). This
term also involves a vast array of methods and approaches within the different subjects of research. Hence, the
writers have provided the definition of qualitative research distinctively. Strauss and Corbin (1990, p. 11), for
example, stated that, “By the term ‘qualitative research’, we mean any type of research that produces findings
not arrived at by statistical procedures or other means of quantification. It can refer to research about persons’
lives, lived experiences, behaviours, emotions, and feelings as well as about organisational functioning, social
movements, cultural phenomena, and interactions between nations.” This means that qualitative research is not
statistical and it incorporates multiple realities. Then, Flick (2014, p. 542) claimed that, “Qualitative research
interested in analysing subjective meaning or the social production of issues, events, or practices by collecting
non-standardised data and analysing texts and images rather than number and statistics.” This definition stressed
on how people make sense of something in the world. So, the qualitative research is basically associated with
multiple aspects. Moreover, Denzin and Lincoln (1994, p. 2) claimed that, “Qualitative research is multi-method
in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter.” It is, moreover, apparent that the
qualitative research is concerned with multiple perspectives when Van Maanen (1979, p. 520) defines it as, “an
umbrella term covering an array of interpretive techniques which seek to describe, decode, translate, and
otherwise come to terms with the meaning, not the frequency, of certain more or less naturally occurring