Issues of assessment design and implementation in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have attracted some attention over recent years, but teachers' philosophies about assessment remain underexplored. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study into the assessment roles and philosophies of a group of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in the UAE and Kuwait. Based on an open-ended questionnaire, the study showed that teachers' views on the nature of assessment were informed by their knowledge of the field of language learning and teaching and by the contextual milieu and sociopolitical factors that govern their employment conditions. The study also showed that teachers did not play a major role in assessment because of top-down managerial approaches to education and a concern for validity and quality assurance in large programmes.