Abstract: This article reviews all the LAQ (Language Assessment Quarterly) interviews to with leading language assessment experts over the last decade, through which three main characteristics and trends of language testing research and practice over the last half a century are identified: (a) the uniformity of language ability standards, (b) the institutionalization and inter-disciplinary features of test development, and (c) the shift of research focus from valid test to valid test use and its social impact. It also offers implications for the construction of language ability standards, test development and test use within Chinese context.