Prof. Liz Hamp-Lyons
Visiting Professor in English Language Assessment
CRELLA, University of Bedfordshire
Language assessment literacy for teachers using alternative assessment types
Language assessment literacy is “the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and principles of test construction, test interpretation and use, test evaluation, and classroom-based assessments alongside the development of a critical stance about the functions of assessment within a larger educational context” (O’Loughlin, 2013, p. 363). However, few initial language teacher training programmes include a module specifically dealing with assessment: this is usually left until MA or advanced Diploma level. Sadly then, many teachers find themselves poorly equipped to assess student learning in their classrooms.
New ventures in language assessment literacy (LAL) are opening up new opportunities to help teachers increase their assessment literacy in the emerging area of learning-oriented language assessment. In this presentation I introduce and briefly exemplify two kinds of alternative assessment that aim to empower teachers—in their teaching role or/and in their assessor role: a teacher assessment literacy course to accompany the introduction of school-based assessment of English language speaking in Hong Kong secondary classrooms, and a set of empirically-grounded strategies for learning-oriented language assessment that can help teachers prepare students to engage in interactive speaking tasks even in a formal large-scale exam context.
In the final part of the presentation I describe the conditions in schools and society that support the spread of new forms of language assessment, and the conditions that inhibit such change.
About the speaker: Liz Hamp-Lyons was formerly Chair Professor of English at the Hong Kong PolytechnicUniversity, and then Director of the Language Testing Research Centre at the University of Melbourne, before joining the Centre for Research in English Language Learning and Assessment [CRELLA] at the University of Bedfordshire, UK. She is Guest Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where she is the senior consultant to the College English Test (CET). Her research interests include the development and validation of English language performance (i.e. writing and speaking) assessments, assessment for academic and specific purposes, assessment for learning, learning-oriented language assessment and language teacher assessment literacy. She is currently engaged in an ERASMUS+ Project on Teacher Assessment Literacy Enhancement. She was founding Editor of the Journal of English for Academic Purposes and is now Emeritus Editor; and is the current Editor of Assessing Writing.