Value orientations in large-scale English language assessments: a psychological analysis based on Schwartz's theory and stakeholder perceptions

Large-scale language assessments are commonly viewed as instruments for measuring linguistic proficiency. However, from a Critical Language Testing perspective, they may also be understood as institutional contexts in which socially and culturally meaningful content is selected and represented. Drawing on Schwartz's Basic Human Values Theory as a theoretically grounded descriptive taxonomy, this study examines how value orientations are represented and distributed in large-scale English language assessment materials in China, and how they are perceived by student stakeholders. The corpus comprised 149 value-oriented assessment tasks identified from 1,227 assessment tasks in CET and TEM examinations administered between 2010 and 2024. A three-stage coding procedure was used to identify value-related texts and classify them into four higher-order dimensions-openness to change, self-transcendence, conservation, and self-enhancement. Questionnaire data from 1,066 students and interviews with seven participants were analyzed to explore stakeholder perceptions. Results indicate that all four value dimensions are present but unevenly distributed, with openness to change and self-transcendence more prominently represented. Students reported high awareness and general acceptance of value-oriented content. Notably, students' reported interest did not simply correspond to the frequency with which value-related themes appeared in the assessment corpus. Interview findings further suggested that students generally interpreted value-related themes as part of the thematic context of assessment texts rather than as explicit moral messages. By using Schwartz's value framework as a descriptive taxonomy alongside a critical perspective on assessment discourse, this study advances understanding of how value-related content is represented in institutional assessment contexts and interpreted by student stakeholders.