Assessment training for language teachers

Watch a recording of this talk by Richard Spiby and Carolyn Westbrook from the World Teachers' Day web conference 2019.

On Saturday 5 October 2019, the British Council and IATEFL co-hosted a one-day web conference to celebrate World Teachers Day.

About the talk

Assessment literacy is a subject which is often neglected or even omitted from teacher training courses, despite being an integral component of language education courses. Consequently, language teachers need to look to Continuous Professional Development if they want to learn about good assessment practice and implement this in the classroom. This presentation addresses the reasons why knowledge of language assessment is essential for teachers, and where opportunities for Continuous Professional Development can be found. We refer to freely available resources for teachers which have been created by the Assessment Research Group at the British Council.

About the speakers

Carolyn Westbrook is a Test Development Researcher at the British Council in the UK. Formerly an Associate Professor in EFL, she has over 25 years’ experience teaching and assessing General English, Business English, ESP and EAP. A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK, she is a teacher trainer and materials writer who has delivered teacher training seminars in the UK, Europe and further afield. She has been involved in Language Testing and Assessment since 2007. Since then she has been involved in a number of testing and assessment projects, including a major project teaching Russian university lecturers about the principles and practice of language testing and assessment as well as designing and developing an international test of Maritime English for cadets graduating from maritime academies.

Richard Spiby works at the British Council in London. He has been a Test Development Researcher with the Assessment Research Group since June 2016. His main responsibilities involve overseeing operational analysis and developing the receptive skills components of new and existing Aptis test variants. He also works on a variety of assessment development and training projects worldwide. His areas of interest include cognitive processing, strategy use in reading and listening, vocabulary testing and inclusivity in language assessment.

Watch a recording of the talk below

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