ESP testing for tourism and assessment constraints

For a long time, much research has been devoted to the analysis, development and planning of language testing for specific purposes (Douglas, 2000; Skehan, 1984) and their communicative orientation (Davies, 2001). Unfortunately, very few teachers and instructors1 are fully aware of the incidental issues that should account for when designing in low stake testing. In fact, although certain publications have presented practical issues in designing ESP tests (Douglas 2000), it was necessary to summarize the latest matters to make most instructors aware of the issues that should be considered in planning their tests for ESP students, especially in Travel & Tourism. In order to do so, this paper analyzed the current literature in the field and, more important, tried to draw some guidelines that could be considered in the instructors ’evaluation job. To better address this issue, the different factors affecting tests in ESP for Tourism have been divided into two groups: those related to the construction of the test and those which are not considered implicit to the test construction.