05/05/2023
The Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) held its 8th international conference, hosted by the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid, bringing together experts in educational research, psychometrics and other disciplines to share best practice, research and trends in language learning and assessment.
ALTE’s first hybrid conference explored three big language assessment themes:
- The digital age
- Diversity and inclusion with a focus on multilingualism
- The implementation of frameworks such as the CEFR
Participants came not only from all across Europe, but also the world, including specific representation from Latin America and East Asia. This included a speaker came from the Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam, which has worked with Cambridge to develop a localised version of the CEFR as well as curriculum and assessment development. Keynote speakers included Dr Nick Saville, ALTE Secretary-General, from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, Tineke Brunfaut, Professor of Linguistics and English Language from Lancaster University, Lynda Taylor, Visiting Professor at the Centre for Research in English Language Learning and Assessment (CRELLA) at the University of Bedfordshire and Neus Figueras, researcher and language expert from the Universitat de Barcelona Generalitat de Catalunya.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment is a founding member of ALTE and several of its experts presented the latest thinking on a range of areas including test security, testing for high stakes purposes, automated scoring and the future of language assessment. There was also a panel presentation on the ground-breaking PISA Foreign Language Assessment, where experts from Cambridge were joined by the OECD.
The conference included a series of forums covering the wider issues such as fairness for language testing in the ALTE Social Justice Forum, and the role of testing in migration at the third LAMI Forum (Language Assessment for Migration and Integration).
The conference took place from the 26 to 28 April. Many of the presentations will be available shortly on the ALTE YouTube channel.