Taiwan’s Ministry of Education has encouraged all Taiwanese institutions of higher learning to utilize English proficiency tests as a graduation requirement. Many educators and administrators feel that these tests are a good way to objectively measure the effectiveness of students’ learning stratagems as well as teacher and program efficacy. These are high stake tests which have a great deal of impact on students, teachers and entire universities. Nevertheless, considerable research, from Taiwan and abroad, indicates that these tests are not effective as tools for promoting learning or increasing student motivation.

Taiwanese EFL education, high-stakes testing, motivation