天美传媒

LTF 2024, hosted by CRELLA, was held at the 天美传媒, Bedford Campus from 22-24 November 2024.

Conference theme

The theme for LTF 2024 was 'What do we want the future of language assessment to look like?: Taking stock of what we know now'. Featured topics of particular interest included:

• Equ(al)ity, Diversity, and Inclusion in language assessment
• Interfaces between language assessment and other disciplines
• Revisiting the relationship between language education and assessment in the era of Generative AI
• Test localisation Language policy and assessment
• Multimodal assessment
• Language assessment literacy

The theme, "What do we want the future of language assessment to look like? Taking stock of what we know now", encompassed prominent interconnected issues in language assessment. The selected issues were both salient and interconnected as they collectively aimed to create fair, valid, and contextually appropriate evaluation systems that leverage technological advancements, address diverse learner needs, and ensure that educators and policymakers are well-informed and equipped to implement effective practices.

Keynote: Professor Emerita Janice Wearmouth

Janice Wearmouth is a Professor Emerita and the previous co-Director of the Institute for Research in Education (IREd) at the 天美传媒. She is a world-leading expert in special educational needs research. Over the past two decades, she has been extensively researching and publishing on issues related to literacy difficulties, behavioural concerns in schools, teacher professional development and inclusion in the UK and New Zealand. In 2009 she won the National Association of Special Educational Needs (NASEN) book of the year award in the category teacher professional development for her publication: Wearmouth, J (2009) 鈥楢 Beginning Teacher's Guide to Special Educational Needs鈥�, Open 天美传媒 Press. She is a member of the Leading Learning for Special Educational Needs and Disability CIC.

Presentations

• Linda Taylor and Chihiro Inoue: How do examiners accommodate candidates with special requirements? The case of the IELTS Speaking tests [PDF]
• Shishi Zhang: Assessing second language pragmatic competence for intercultural communication: Targeting UK pre-sessional students [PDF]
• Nicholas Glasson and Katherine Halley: Less talk more action? Exploring proficiency scores and embodied resources in online L2 interactions [PDF]
• Shilin Gao, Mark Gales, and Jing Xu: Detecting Aberrant Responses in Automated L2 Spoken English Assessment [PDF]
• Yasin Karatay and Jing Xu: Eliciting conversational speech using conversational AI: What do raters think? [PDF]
• Jane Lloyd: A systematic review of expert decision making: implications for standard setting [PDF]
• Ben Naismith, Sarah Goodwin, and Okim Kang: Speech rate in L2 listening assessment: Past challenges, future opportunities [PDF]
• Haoshan (Sally) Ren: Validation of Functional Language in Academic Lectures Bridging Corpus Linguistics to Assessment of International Teaching Assistants [PDF]
• Hye-won Lee and Claire Gilbert: Case study: A digital prototype for enhancing student language assessment literacy [PDF]
• Anthony Green and Saraswati Dawadi: TOEFL iBT Writing & English Medium 天美传媒 study in South Asia [PDF]
• John Pill and Susan Sheehan: How understanding test users鈥� perspectives can help us communicate about language testing [PDF]

Programme

Download the full programme here: LTF 2024 Conference Programme [PDF]

Our CRELLA Spring Research Seminar was held on Wednesday 22^nd May at 10 am (BST).

This was an online event, and we were honoured to welcome Professor Christine Goh (Nanyang Technological 天美传媒, Singapore) as our keynote speaker.

We also had a presentation from Jane Lloyd (Cambridge Assessment) who presented on her recent research project: Decision-making in standard setting: findings from the panellist perspective.

And last, but not least, we had Dr Sathena Chan (CRELLA) and Dr Lynette May (Queensland 天美传媒 of Technology) who presented on their research - Introducing a mixed-methods approach to analysing responses to integrated speaking tasks: Features salient to experts and spoken performances across levels.

Watch available seminar recordings at the links below:

• Keynote speaker, Professor Christine Goh:
• Jane Lloyd:

Download programme and abstracts [DOCX]

The CRELLA Annual Lecture was held online, 25 January 2024.

The event featured keynote speaker, Professor Talia Isaacs (天美传媒 College London), who presented, Predictive validity of the Duolingo English Test and comparisons with more established proficiency tests used for university admissions: Insights from the pandemic.

Additional presentations included Dr Evelina Galaczi (Cambridge 天美传媒 Press & Assessment) and Dr Nahal Khabbazbashi (CRELLA) who discussed Exploring the impact of Generative AI on language education: insights from teachers, and Gwen Cauldwell who presented, Investigating the spoken production of young learners aged 13-15.

Watch available lectures online at the links below:

• Dr Evelina Galaczi and Dr Nahal Khabbazbashi:
• Gwen Cauldwell:

Download programme and abstracts [DOCX]

This workshop, presented by Dr Nicola Latimer and Dr Sathena Chen, focused on the Sociocognitive framework for validating listening tests, exploring both context validity鈥攃overing task features, such as audio characteristics, previewing questions, and single or double plays鈥攁nd cognitive validity, examining the cognitive processes involved in second-language listening. Drawing on research from John Field, they emphasized the importance of authenticity, the interaction between reading and listening processes, and how these factors influence test-taker performance at different proficiency levels. Key challenges discussed included balancing practicality and authenticity in test design, deciding audio characteristics, and managing cognitive demands. The session concluded with considerations for effective test development, stressing the need for principled compromises, careful construct definition, and an understanding of the implications test features have on learner strategies and outcomes.

See the workshop's recording:

The CEFR Colloquium was held on 28 September.

The event opened with a welcome and introduction by Neus Figueras and Barry O鈥橲ullivan, including a short address from Sarah Breslin, Executive Director of the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) and Head of Language Policy, Council of Europe.

Presentations included Thom Kiddle (Norwich Institute for Language Education) discussing CEFR curriculum alignment projects in Ireland and Turkiye; Glyn Jones presenting on aligning learning materials with the CEFR; and Chihiro Inoue (CRELLA, 天美传媒) and Anna Soltyska (Ruhr-Universit盲t Bochum) sharing insights on CEFR-linked testing and classroom assessment in Uruguay and Germany, respectively.

The event concluded with a panel discussion by The Handbook Steering Group, chaired by Neus Figueras, and a summary round-up by David Little and Neus Figueras.

Download the programme and abstracts [DOCX]

The CRELLA Spring Seminar was held online in Spring 2023.

The event featured Professor Paula Winke, who presented 鈥淲hen what students know is limited to what they learned in class: Measuring lower-level proficiency in foreign language education鈥�. Dr Edit Willcox-Ficzere discussed 鈥淗ow might B2-C2 students' pragmatic performance be affected by the examination of the social context?鈥�, while Dr Carolyn Westbrook explored 鈥淗ow input medium affects performance on integrated listening-into-writing tasks in English for Academic Purposes (EAP)鈥�.

Watch the recorded presentations at the links below:

• Professor Paula Winke:
• Dr Edit Willcox-Ficzere:
• Dr Carolyn Westbrook:

Download the programme and abstracts [DOCX]

The CRELLA Annual Lecture was held online 20 January, 2023.

The event featured Dr Fergus O鈥橠wyer (Trinity College Dublin), who presented 鈥淚ntegrating Action Research with the CEFR鈥�, highlighting the complementary relationship between action research and the CEFR, focusing on teaching, learning, and assessment.

Presentations also included Dr Fumiyo Nakatsuhara, Dr Chihiro Inoue, and Professor Tony Green, who discussed 鈥淯sing CEFR linking procedures to inform a teaching programme reform鈥�, describing their project on evaluating and reforming a university speaking programme in Japan. Aynur Ismayilli Karakoc presented research on 鈥淩ater sensitivities and challenges while marking academic integrated reading-writing essays鈥�, focusing on raters' cognitive processes in integrated writing tasks and implications for scale development and rater training.

Watch the recorded presentations at the links below:

• Dr Fergus O鈥橠wyer:
• Dr Fumiyo Nakatsuhara, Dr Chihiro Inoue, and Professor Tony Green:
• Dr Aynur Ismayilli Karakoc:

Download the programme and abstracts [DOCX]