Testing the English Language in the Online Environment during the imposed Covid-19 Era

Abstract

As the outbreak of Covid-19 occurred two years ago, the entire education system was forced to change a wellestablished learning system; thus universities and schools faced numerous challenges, and one of the challenges was the way of conducting testing. Given the fact that the world was in lockdown, online testing was the only solution. Therefore, many programs and applications emerged to provide help and support; however, the question arose whether online testing could be implemented in certain fields, such as learning foreign languages. This paper aims to shed light on the current situation of testing the English language in the online environment. The first part of the paper compares on-site testing and online testing, and at the same time delves into the problems that may occur during online testing. On the other hand, the second part of the paper focuses on the examined attitudes and experiences of English language students regarding online testing. Also, the results reveal the problems that students encounter when conducting online testing and consider online testing as new normality.