About this webinar

There have been numerous studies on the knowledge and skills needed by English language teachers in the area of assessment, all of them recommending that for the most effective teaching and learning to take place, teachers need to know about assessment and its role in the classroom and how to integrate it into daily practice. 

If assessment is seen as an integral part of the teaching and learning process, then it seems obvious that assessment-related input be included in teacher education and training. However, the importance given to assessment in teacher development has been sporadic and sometimes even minimal assessment is often not seen as a priority with other aspects of teaching given more prominence. With the Coronavirus, online teaching and development related to it have become critically important as teachers grapple with the technicalities of virtual classrooms. Where does assessment fit into this? 

The presenters will talk about how important it is for teachers and trainers to know about, understand and use assessment effectively, the role of assessment in projects they have worked on and whether technology is a help or a hindrance to developing teachers’ assessment literacy.

Speakers

Salomé Villa Larenas - Co-founder and President, Latin American Association for Language Testing and Assessment (LAALTA)

Language teacher, language tester, teacher educator, and researcher with experience in curriculum design and test development. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics (language testing) from Lancaster University. Salomé’s work experience has included teaching in different contexts in Chile, from Primary School to English teacher education in Higher Education.

Dave Allan - President and Founding Director, Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE)

NILE has provided training and professional development for over 40,000 teachers and trainers from some 70 countries since 1995, on courses from initial training to the UK’s biggest language education MA, a total of around 100 courses a year delivered face-to-face (usually!) and online.

Dave is an author for OUP, a former Cambridge Chief Examiner and a previous IATEFL TEASIG Coordinator.

Graham Stanley - Lead for English as an Educational System (EES) in the Americas, British Council

He was the British Council’s Country Director Uruguay, managing the teaching of over 70,000 primary school students via videoconferencing, in partnership with Plan Ceibal. During this time, he also had a leading role in the development of Uruguay’s National English Adaptive Test, in collaboration with the Board of Education (ANEP), Plan Ceibal and CRELLA in the UK.