Should the assessment of an English language learner be a simple pass/fail, satisfactory/unsatisfactory?

Mohammed, I would tend to agree with you for most other subjects, but not a language.
In my opinion, you either have the skills to communicate, or not.
I also don't think English (or any language) should be awarded with credit, but rather a mandatory series of non-credit courses that must be completed to meet the requirements of graduation.
If it's pass/fail, I think students will focus on learning as opposed to learning what they need to for test.

I always think that it is a "poor" testing system if students know what they are going to be tested on! If we presuppose that you are teaching the "whole" subject then we should expect that they are examined on the "whole" subject. If this then is the case it would be morally wrong as a teacher to give "broadbrush" pass/fail, satisfactory/unsatisfactory evaluations. Through the whole learning/teaching process the word "critiques" springs to mind, regular testing throughout the course will determine where an individual's failings lie and they should be counselled accordingly and informed of what remedial action is required to bring them up to the required level, after an optimum period of time they should have to resit the test and if their standard hasn't improved they should be told that they can't continue on the course. This may appear harsh but will (should) determine how strong their motivation is and send a clear message that they are in effect being assessed on what you want them to know as opposed to what they think they need to know.

I think  students should be applauded even for their little efforts. They should be given either remarks based on each answer or tips for improvement in the assessment sheet itself. The remarks should just contain either words or small phrases. So when they appear for the test next time, this will help them to analyse and compare the remarks instead of comparing the grades or marks.  

No, 

There is too much involved,

2 ways of HOLISTIC and ANALYTIC in testing covers much of debate. it truly hangs on the type of assessment you mean to establish.in the domain of comparing students on a continum,Interval assessmet ( assigning scores ) is much good. as for WRITING ,holistic assessment works out like in rating studentsEXCELLENT,GOOD,POOR and ...

I believe that English, as other subjects, should be divided into lessons that are graded but give feedback to the students about what they could do to improve upon their grade and then given the chance to make up through extra credit activities related to the lessons.

No, there are many other factors that affect learning process .
Pass fail is not enough.
Examples of genius minds of many professors were described as stupid learners in their stage of learning.We need to make assessment more depending on practice, with evaluation in each stage aside not of all the process

For English assessment there many categories  oral speaking,grammar,writing composition so someone maybe good in oral but poor in writing so I disagree  with this direct awarding it should be categorized liIke  with different grades then combine to make an overall comment