Program‐Fair Language Teaching Evaluation

A basic, but inadequately fulfilled, requirement of evaluation studies comparing the effects of teaching programs is that the tests used should be program‐fair. In this article, attention is first of all drawn to the potential for misinterpretation of experiments lacking program‐fair criteria. Second, the strategies adopted by various researchers to come to terms with the issue are considered from the perspectives of (a) standardized tests, (b) specific tests for each program, (c) program‐specific plus program‐neutral measures, (d) common/unique objectives, and (e) appeal to consensus. Finally, it is concluded that while the issue remains largely unresolved, there are some general principles which can be gleaned from past experience.