Language Testing Forum 2009

20th – 22nd November

The 2009 Language Testing Forum was hosted by the Centre for Research in English Language Learning and Assessment at the University’s Putteridge Bury conference centre from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 November 2009.

The Forum is an annual specialist conference for language testing researchers working at the major examining boards and universities in the UK and across the world. With sixty-eight participants, this year’s Forum at the University of Bedfordshire attracted over twice as many delegates as the previous year.

In line with the conference theme of Frameworks and Levels of Proficiency, John Trim from the Council of Europe reflected on his experience as an author of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and there was discussion of the innovative socio-cognitive framework for test validation developed by CRELLA researchers now being used to revise the English Reference Level descriptors for the Council of Europe in the English Profile. There were a further 15 paper presentations including contributions from leading international figures such as Prof Alan Davies (University of Edinburgh), Prof Pauline Rea-Dickins (University of Bristol), Prof Jon de Jong (University of Amsterdam) and Prof Charles Alderson (Lancaster University) as well as 12 poster presentations.

The success of the Forum reflects the growing recognition of CRELLA as a centre of excellence in the field of language assessment and the continuing popularity of Putteridge Bury as a conference venue.

Papers

Identifying “criterial features” of English across CEFR levels: implications for diagnostic assessment [pdf] Angeliki Salamoura & Nick Saville - University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations

Getting the levels right: deriving item writer guidelines from CEFR descriptors [pdf1] [pdf2] Glyn Jones - Pearson Language Tests

The CEFR: Its virtues and shortcomings when teaching and assessing young learners [pdf] Szilvia Papp, Hanan Khalifa & Nick Charge - University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations

Doing well in school subject examinations or being good at English: same or different? [pdf] Pauline Rea-Dickins, Guoxing Yu, Oksana Afitska – University of Bristol

Predicting difficulty in PISA reading items: The process of describing item difficulty [pdf] Charles Alderson – Lancaster University & John H.A.L. de Jong – VU University Amsterdam

The BALEAP working party on testing [pdf] Bruce Howell - University of Reading / BALEAP & Diane Schmitt - Nottingham Trent University / BALEAP

The standard adopted by university language teachers- which one? [pdf] Eva Lui - City University of Hong Kong

A test of oral English proficiency for university lecturers: Developing proficiency levels and justifying assessment use Lars Stenius Stæhr & Joyce Kling - University of Copenhagen - Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use

Vocabulary measurement: Critical but often omitted considerations [pdf] Norbert Schmitt - University of Nottingham

Innovations in language testing: The impact of online marking on examiners' marks Ardeshir Geranpayeh - University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations

Dimensionality and the construct of language proficiency [pdf] John H.A.L. de Jong – Pearson Language Tests / VU University Amsterdam

Effects of the number of participants on group oral test performance [pdf] Fumiyo Nakatsuhara - University of Bedfordshire

Investigating the context validity of speaking tests: What insights can a socio-cognitive framework provide? [pdf] Evelina Galaczi & Angela ffrench - University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations

Text characteristics: towards explaining task difficulty in L2 listening assessment? [pdf] Tineke Brunfaut & Andrea Revesz - Lancaster University

Native Speakers and Non-native Speakers: gulf or continuum? [pdf] Alan Davies - University of Edinburgh

Poster Presentations

Using reaction times and in-depth interviews as validation measures of checklist vocabulary tests [pdf] Ana Pellicer Sánchez - University of Nottingham

Testing at three levels of careful reading Aylin Unaldi – University of Bedfordshire

Are two seemingly parallel narrative tasks parallel at different levels of proficiency? Chihiro Inoue – University of Lancaster

Benchmarking the Lancashire English Language Examinations to the Common European Framework for Languages [pdf] Daniel Waller - School of Languages and International Studies, University of Central Lancashire

School-based Oral Language Assessment in Hong Kong: A survey study of students’ attitudes and anxiety Gao Manman - The University of Hong Kong

Levels of lexical competence Karen Dunn – University of Lancaster

Dimensional structure of language tests and test taker characteristics Michael Corrigan – University of Bedfordshire

'But I had nothing to say'-building a topic validity argument for the IELTS Speaking Test Nahal Khabbazbashi - University of Oxford

Researching the interface between formative language assessment and second language learning Rashid Al-Hinai – University of Bristol

Towards the inclusion of multiword items in vocabulary assessment [pdf] Ron Martinez - University of Nottingham

The power of a locally-developed English proficiency test on the society and on its tertiary English education Shwu-Wen Lin - University of Bristol, Graduate School of Education

Student self-assessment protocols: Effects on developing speaking skills in English [pdf] Susan Cranfield - University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria