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  3. Master’s in English language assessment from Cambridge: five things you need to know

Master’s in English language assessment from Cambridge: five things you need to know

27/06/2023

Dr Nick SavilleEnglish teachers and other professionals involved in English assessment are already benefiting from a new Master’s course in English Language Assessment. The Cambridge experts behind the course are more than half-way through delivering a successful pilot and are now gearing up for the next group of students who will join the course in 2024. Dr Nick Saville (pictured) from Cambridge University Press & Assessment is Joint Programme Director (Assessment). Any interested students are encouraged to watch our recent open day on 21 June and look at the other resources listed at the end of this article. In the meantime, Dr Saville shares five things you need to know about the course.

It's not just for English teachers

Broadly speaking, the course is aimed at anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of how English language is assessed. Of course, this usually means English teachers but other professionals that could benefit from the course include teacher trainers, lecturers, materials writers, educational practitioners, civil servants and staff at relevant assessment and publishing organisations.

If you need to know if the course is right for you, a good place to start is to look at the course objectives. We’ve designed the course to provide an in depth understanding of how English is assessed and what expertise is needed to develop new assessment tools and effective strategies. Students will also learn how to meet the diverse needs of learners and ensure fairness in different testing environments.

The content is wide ranging 

By working with colleagues from Cambridge University we have developed a course that gives you a really wide-ranging view of language assessment that is split into six modules. One thing that makes the course stand out is, that it specifically relates to the assessment of English. The course also includes a research element, which is so important in our sector. 

The full course content is as follows:

Module 1: Understanding speech and language and how they are learned.

Module 2: Language learning in instructed contexts

Module 3: Principles of assessment; the role of assessment and how it contributes to learning.

Module 4: Use of technology in language learning and assessment; how technology can be used to enhance learning.

Module 5: Principles of research; mixed methods; introduction to statistical methods and statistical analysis for language assessment

Module 6: Critical view of language assessment tools

In Year 2, students undertake an independent research project and write a dissertation of 15,000 – 18,000 words.

You get the full Cambridge experience

The course is a University of Cambridge Masters, which means so much on the global stage. To put this into context, Cambridge University was founded in 1209 and is synonymous with world-class education. The course is devised and delivered by world-leading researchers from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics, and Cambridge Language Sciences Interdisciplinary Research Centre. The administration of the course is co-ordinated by the University’s Institute of Continuing Education.

Cambridge also plays an enormous part of the student experience. Students will get the opportunity to stay at one of two historic Cambridge University colleges for the two-week residential part of the course. This means that students will join a rich interdisciplinary learning community from one of the most influential higher education institutions in the world.  Successful completion at a high grade may allow students to progress and explore the possibility of a PhD at the University of Cambridge or other universities.

 We know it works!

We’re over halfway through a pilot which ends this December, and the feedback has been really positive. Taking part in the pilot is a cohort of international students from a range of different backgrounds. I got to meet some of the students when I taught on the course last year and they had different degrees of teaching experience and diverse journeys that brought them to the course. Some were working in assessment organisations already, some were working in higher education and others worked directly with pupils or schools. One thing that struck me was they all had one thing in common - which was a passion for finding the best ways of assessing English language.

It’s flexible

This is a part time two-year Master’s course delivered online and face-to-face. This blended learning approach gives the course added flexibility for students wishing to apply. The face-to-face teaching is carried out during the two-week residential sessions in Cambridge. Whether online or face-to-face, all of the teaching is delivered by experts from across a broad range of disciplines and covers a combination of theoretical learning and practical tasks.

Find out more about the course

To find out more about course content, entry requirements, key dates and the student experience – you can:

  • Watch our recent open day.
  • Book a one to one session with Dr Roberto B Sileo, the Academic Director, to ask any questions about the course itself or your application
  • Check out the resources on the course webpage which includes links to bite sized lectures.

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