Home › Blogs › EricAtkinson's blog › ALTE Conference Blog
      TeachingEnglish
      ALTE Conference Blog
      Submitted by EricAtkinson on 10 June, 2011 - 11:01

      Hello,

      Testing! Enough to send shivers down your spine. I've got a test tomorrow. Groan. I'll have to spend all night revising. Double groan.

      Most people don't like tests. Sitting for an hour or more in a quiet room having a year's worth of learning assessed is not many people's idea of fun. But testing has to be done. We need to find out how good we are at things. Employers need to know what we can do. And is sitting in a quiet room for an hour the only way to do testing?

      I'm going to the ALTE Conference in Krakow to find out more about the testing of languages and I'll be blogging every day fom it. (ALTE stands for the Association of Language Testers in Europe.) If you are interested in finding out about how to assess English, or get some idea of how tests are created, I hope you follow this blog.

      The conference doesn't start until July 7th so we have a chance to get to know each other and for me to find out what you want to know from the conference. So, please write a comment and let me know who you are and what you like to get from this blog.

      And look out for further blogs on http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/ericatkinson

      Eric

      Average: 4.7 (3 votes)

      Tag

      Comments

      Tamarindos's picture
      Tamarindos
      Testing writing
      Submitted on 15 June, 2011 - 08:06

      Hello Eric,

      I'm interested in how we assess writing, in particular with regard to accuracy.   I'm an experienced IELTS examiner, so am familiar with the coherence, cohesion, progression thing.  But my particular interest is in in sentence level grammar, as so few of my students and ielts candidates can actually write a correctly structured sentence.  

      Its a rather vague question,  I know, but not sure at this stage, how to make it more precise.  So any information will be gratefully received.

      Thanks

      Alison

       

      EricAtkinson's picture
      EricAtkinson
      Testing Writing
      Submitted on 17 June, 2011 - 08:26

      Hello Alison,

      Nice to hear from you. I'll look out for anything to do with writing, especially at the sentence level. Where are you from and what are you doing?

      Eric

      olgabarnashova's picture
      olgabarnashova
      Hi Eric,Thanks for
      Submitted on 17 June, 2011 - 11:05

      Hi Eric,

      Thanks for undertaking to write from the conference. Good luck and looking forward to reading your blog!

      Olga

      EricAtkinson's picture
      EricAtkinson
      I hope I can make it interesting
      Submitted on 20 June, 2011 - 11:44

      I hope I can make it interesting. Testing can be very detailed and very specialised. I'm hoping to write for the more general teacher. Wish me luck

      elinasteska's picture
      elinasteska
      Testing!
      Submitted on 8 July, 2011 - 22:20

      Hello, Eric!

      I'm an English teacher from Macedonia. I enjoyed this virtual conference. Thanks to you and the colleagues all around the world my testing skills will improve.

      Eli Nasteska