Guest Speakers
Workshop 1
Corpora and Learning-Oriented Assessment:
The Cambridge English Approach
Mark Brenchley
Senior Research Manager at Cambridge Assessment English
Mark Brenchley holds a PhD in education from the University of Exeter. As a Senior Research Manager at Cambridge Assessment English, he manages research in the areas of writing, lexico-grammar, and auto-marking systems. He has a special focus on the development and application of corpora and corpus-based methodologies, managing both the Cambridge Learner Corpus and the Cambridge English Profile Corpus.
For his PhD, Mark explored the development of spoken and written syntax in L1 English students. Following his PhD, he co-developed the Growth in Grammar Corpus, a novel corpus of student writing that covers the primary and secondary phases of the English education system. He has also taught in the English education system across a variety of contexts for many years, both mainstream and non-mainstream.
Abstract
The potential for corpora to support language teaching and learning has long been clear (Hunston, 2002), with Cambridge Assessment English one of its early recognisers (Boyle & Booth, 2000). This workshop will focus on the particular ways in which Cambridge English currently values corpora and corpus-based methods within a TEFL framework of Learning Oriented Assessment (Jones & Saville, 2016).
The workshop itself will proceed in two parts. The first part will offer a detailed overview of current principles and practice. The second part will be more future-oriented, outlining some of our future plans, with a particular focus on both the importance and the implications of integrating corpus-based approaches with other disciplines and methodologies; most notably those of second language acquisition, cognitive science and machine learning. Space will be provided throughout to enable a critical discussion of the core value of corpora, including their key strengths and potential limitations.
References
Boyle, A. & Booth, D. (2000) The UCLES/CUP Learner Corpus. Research Notes 1. Available online at: https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/Images/23112-research-notes-01.pdf
Hunston, S. (2002) Corpora in Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jones, N. & Saville, N. (2016) Learning Oriented Assessment: A Systemic Approach, Studies in Language Testing vol. 46. Cambridge: UCLESCambridge University Press.
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Workshop 2
Incorporating the Lexile Frameworks into EFL teaching and assessment.
Jing Wei
- Director of Product Innovation at MetaMetrics
Dr. Jing Wei is Director of Product Innovation at MetaMetrics, where she is responsible for the research, design and development of new products for MetaMetrics. Jing was formerly a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Applied Linguistics where she managed test development projects for both the U.S. K-12 English Language Learner (ELL) and the international English Foreign Language Learner (EFL) populations. She has worked as an EFL teacher, adjunct professor, test developer and researcher, in China, U.K. and U.S. She has a PhD in language testing and regularly presents at national and international conferences.
Alistair Van Moere
Chief Product Officer at MetaMetrics -
Research Professor at University of Carolina at Chapel Hill -
Chief Product Officer at MetaMetrics and Research Professor at University of Carolina at Chapel Hill. He drives research in assessment and AI technologies, and helps organizations make sense of measurement and test scores. Alistair was previously president of Pearson Knowledge Technologies, where he managed artificial intelligence scoring services for speaking and writing for Pearson’s high-stakes tests. He also oversaw development and delivery of large-scale assessments for millions of learners. Alistair has worked as a teacher, examiner, director of studies, university lecturer and test developer, in the U.S., U.K., Japan and Thailand. He has an MA in English Language Teaching, Ph.D. in Language Testing, and an MBA. He is frequently invited to speak at conferences and has authored over 20 research publications with a focus on educational technology and language assessments.
Abstract
The Lexile® Frameworks for Reading, Listening and Oral Reading are used to assess students’ language abilities, to gauge the complexity of instructional and assessment materials, and to evaluate the match between student abilities and difficulty of materials. The purpose of this workshop is to introduce Lexile Reading and to demonstrate how it can be used to address questions such as:
· How can I select books and materials that are the right level of challenge for my students?
· How can I analyze the features of texts to determine their complexity?
· How can I use Lexile measures to compare my students reading levels to US norms?
· How can I track students’ learning gains?
The workshop will familiarize participants with the background and theory behind the Lexile Framework:
1. Overview of the Lexile Framework and its theoretical underpinnings
2. The application of the Lexile Framework in previous research studies
3. Introduction to the Lexile Framework for Listening and associated “listenability” scale
4. Introduction to the Lexile Framework for Oral Reading and "oral readability" scale
Attendees will participate in small-group, inquiry-based learning activities that explore the freely accessible collection of online Lexile tools. Attendees will learn how to use the Lexile tools for classroom instruction and materials development, and come up with solutions for common learning challenges.
This workshop is designed for EFL teachers (from kindergarten to college) that aspire to optimize teaching effectiveness by integrating scientific tools into classroom context, as well as graduate students and researchers with an interest in analyzing text demands of reading and listening materials.