Evaluating and Examining the Problems of Iran’s Ministry of Higher Education and Universities’ English Language Proficiency Tests and Stakeholders' Language Needs Analysis

This study aims to explore English language proficiency tests of Iran’s Ministry of Higher Education and universities by analyzing the needs of the participants (PhD candidates and graduates) and then propose a standard and uniform test. To this end, after thematizing the qualitative answers obtained through semi-structured interviews with 30 faculty members (19 females and 11 males) and 35 PhD candidates and graduates (13 females and 22 males) from different cities and majors in universities throughout Iran, a researcher-made questionnaire was developed. To validate the designed questionnaire, first 200 PhD graduates and candidates (117 males and 83 females), studying various majors in universities across Iran, answered the questionnaire (convenience sampling). Then 442 participants (223 males and 219 females) including PhD graduates (N= 57), PhD candidates (N= 320), and faculty members (N= 65) answered the validated questionnaire. Totally, 642 participants expressed their views on the problems of English language proficiency tests in terms of four criteria: validity, reliability, impact, and fairness of the test. The findings show that the participants are not satisfied with these tests and believe that these tests are designed based on the old versions of TOEFL and IELTS international tests and cultural and local considerations are overlooked. Finally, some suggestions are made to improve the quality of English language proficiency tests in Iran.