Dr Ardeshir Geranpayeh

Dr Ardeshir Geranpayeh

Head of Automated Assessment and Learning

Ardeshir is Head of Automated Assessment and Learning at Cambridge Assessment English. He has been leading on the development and implementation of the automated assessment of writing and speaking in Cambridge English since 2009. Ardeshir holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh on the comparability of language proficiency testing. He has 29 years’ experience of test validation and has contributed to the design, development, validation, revision and evaluation of almost all Cambridge English language proficiency tests. He is a regular presenter at international conferences where he has led workshops on statistics, computer-based testing, listening tests and test security.

Ardeshir has a passion for electronics and computing. At the age of 16 he won an electronics award for inventing a digital device to count traffic congestion on the roads. He has mixed his passion for computing and electronics with his knowledge of psychometrics, and has become one of the experts in computer-based testing and cyber test security. Ardeshir has a passion for portraiture photography and since 1999 has been the self-appointed photographer for language testing events such as LTRC and LTF.

Key publications and conference presentations

Yannakoudakis, H, Andresen, O E, Geranpayeh, A, Brisco, T and Nicholls, D (forthcoming) Developing an automated writing placement system for ESL learners, Journal of Applied Measurement.

Geranpayeh, A (2017) Two decades of investigative cheating detection research, paper presented at the Conference On Test Security (COTS), Madison, USA, 6-8 September 2017.

Geranpayeh, A (2014) A look at unintentional cheating in the testing industry: Professional credentialing, NCME Newsletter 22 (1), 5-7.

Geranpayeh, A (2014) Detecting plagiarism and cheating, in Kunnan, A J (Ed) The Companion to Language Assessment Volume 2, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 980-993.

Geranpayeh, A (2013) A look at test taker characteristics for a C2 exam, Research Notes 51, 15-18.

Geranpayeh, A and Taylor, L (Eds) (2013) Examining Listening: Research and Practice in Assessing Second Language Listening, Studies in Language Testing volume 35, Cambridge: UCLES/Cambridge University Press.

Lim, G, Geranpayeh, A, Khalifa, H and Buckendhal, C (2013) Standard setting to an international reference framework: Implications for theory and practice, International Journal of Testing 13, 32-49.

Geranpayeh, A (2011) The impact of online marking on examiners’ behaviour, Research Notes 43, 15-21.

Geranpayeh, A (2008) Using DIF to explore item difficulty in CAE Listening, Research Notes 32, 16-23.

Geranpayeh, A (2007) Using Structural Equation Modelling to facilitate the revision of high stakes testing: The case of CAE, Research Notes 30, 8-12.

Geranpayeh, A and Kunnan, A J (2007) Differential item functioning in terms of age in the Certificate in Advanced English Examination, Language Assessment Quarterly 4 (2), 190-223.