Page 1 of 10
EALTA-funded conference and workshops:
‘Testing and Language Progress Assessment: traditions
and innovations’
Surgut State University, Surgut, Russian Federation
21-22 March 2016
Report by Carolyn Westbrook
Page 2 of 10
Introduction
In 2009, the Unified State Examination (ЕГЭ)
was introduced as the school leaving
and university entrance examination. This is a national exam, which was
introduced, on the one hand, to counter corruption in university admissions and,
on the other, to promote mobility (Denisova-Schmidt and Leontyeva, 2014).
However, the introduction of the national examination system brought with it a
number of challenges, not least the lack of assessment literacy among teachers
and teacher trainers but also the risk of teaching to the test to help students get
the best possible results.
While it is understandable that teachers want their students to achieve the best
results, the danger of teaching to the test is that is restricts the content of the
curriculum and can produce over-inflated results regarding students’ abilities.
To address this lack of assessment literacy, a transnational EU project was
developed to develop a training programme for in-service and pre-service teachers
in Russia. ProSET (
Pro
moting
S
ustainable
E
xcellence in
T
esting and Assessment),
comprised 4 EU partners (University of Bedfordshire and Southampton Solent
University in the UK, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, and the University
of South Bohemia, in the Czech Republic), 11 Russian universities from all over
Russia, the National Association of Teachers of English in Russia and Cambridge
University Press in Moscow. As part of the project, 8000 pre- and in-service
teachers received some form of training in assessment literacy and a course
handbook for a two-module course in language testing was produced. The project
finished in 2015; however, as the name suggests, the project team were interested
in this being sustainable and a number of language testing events have continued
since the project ended.
This is where the EALTA-funded workshops came in.
The EALTA-funded conference and workshops
Thanks to the generous funding from EALTA and generous financial and
administrative support from Surgut State University, the Center for International
Testing: ‘Intex’, and Surgut-ELTA (English Language Teachers’ Association), it was
possible to arrange a two-day conference and workshops to promote assessment
literacy in the Ugra region of Siberia. The event was organised by Olga Simonova
from Surgut State University and had two keynote speakers, Carolyn Westbrook,
from Southampton Solent University and Anzhelika Vladyko from Cambridge English
Language Assessment.
The conference comprised keynote speeches, plenaries and workshops. It had also
been planned to include Special Interest Group meetings; however, due to severe
weather conditions and the need for people to travel home before they were no
longer able to get home, this last session was dropped. Nonetheless, the
participants had the opportunity to submit their papers for inclusion in the
conference proceedings to be published further to the event.
Page 3 of 10
Over the two days, the conference and workshops, which were on the topic of
‘Testing and Language Progress Assessment: traditions and innovations’, were
attended by around 150 participants comprising pre-service teachers, in-service
teachers and university faculty from Surgut and the Surgut Region, Nefteyugansk
and the Nefteyugansk Region, Langepas and other Ugra settlements
Conference Programme
Day 1 March 21, 2016
Venue : Energetikov Str., 8, Conference Hall
9:00 –
10:00
Registration
Book kiosk
/exhibition
10:00 –
10:30
Opening ceremony
Sergey Kosenok, Rector, SurSU
Tatiana Osmankina, Director of Surgut Department of Education
Vitaly Apokin, Director of Institute of the Humanities and Sport
Olga Simonova, President, Surgut-ELTA
Inna Chmykh, International Examination Centre INTEX
Plenary reports
10:30-
11:00
Carolyn Westbrook, Senior Lecturer, Southampton Solent University,
Assessment
of Learning, Assessment for Learning and Assessment as
Learning
11: 05 –
11:20
Anzhelika Vladyko, Senior Specialist, Cambridge Assessment,
Yekaterinburg, ‘Cambridge Exams for schools”
11: 25-
11:40
Larisa Sychugova, Senior Regional Expert in EGE, Surgut
News on Russian State English Examination in 2016
11:40 –
Coffee break
Page 4 of 10
11:50
11:50 –
12:30
Anzhelika Vladyko, Senior Specialist, Cambridge Assessment,
(Yekaterinburg ) How to Succeed in Preparing Students for National
and International Exams
12:35 –
13:15
Natalia Nikolaeva, Macmillan Regional Manager, Yekaterinburg
Systematic Preparation for State Final Language Exam on the base of
Modern Teaching Technologies
13:15 –
14:00
Lunch break
Concurrent workshops
Conference hall
Room 107
14:00 –
15:00
Carolyn Westbrook
Receptive Skills – What are
Test Tasks Testing?
Angelika Vladyko
Developing and Testing Communicative
Skills Effectively.
15:00 –
16:00
Carolyn Westbrook
Productive Skills – Marking
Criteria and Reliability in
Oral and Written Test Tasks
Natalia Nikolaeva
MELTS as a Tool for Independent
Monitoring of Students’ Learning
Progress in English.
Day 2 22 March
Venue: Lenin Av. 1, Rooms 201, 408, 409, 413, 317
Plenary session Room 201
10:00 –
11:00
Carolyn Westbrook
Bridging the Gap Between the EGE and Classroom-Based Assessment
Concurrent workshops
Room 201
Room 413
11:10 –
12:30
Carolyn Westbrook
Designing Learning-Oriented
Assessment tasks
Inna Chmykh
Principles of Listening Skills
Assessment
12:40 –
13:30
Carolyn Westbrook
‘
Developing Academic English
Skills – Reading-into-Writing’
Olga Simonova
Self-Assessment and Peer
Assessment: Challenge or Profit?
13:30 -
14:00
Lunch break
14:00-
16:00
Special Interests Groups
I. Preparing Students for the EGE through Innovative Classroom Assessment
Tasks
1.Zvyagintseva Tatyana Victorovna, Gymnasium ‘Salakhov's Laboratory’,
Surgut, The System of Learners’ Preparation for State English Exam (personal
work experience)
Page 5 of 10
Система подготовки учащихся к ЕГЭ по английскому языку (из опыта
работы).
2.Nigmatullina Marina Makhtyevna, Gymnasium ‘Salakhov's Laboratory’,
Surgut, Strategies for Learners’ Preparation for USE’ Tasks with Full-fledged
Answer
«Стратегии подготовки учащихся к выполнению заданий ЕГЭ с
развёрнутым ответом »
II.Language Competence Assessment in ESP
1. Sannikova Svetlana Vladimorovna, ChelSPU, Chelyabinsk,
Challenges in Learners’ Progress Assessment in Language Teaching within
Professional Context
«Проблемы
оценки
результатов
по
иностранному
языку
в
профессиональном контексте».
2.Sitnikova Anastasia Yurievna, SurSU, Using Graphic Organizers in Language
Skills Assessment while teaching ESP course
III.Using Information, Computer and Mobile Technologies in Language Testing
and Assessment
1.Rudenok Elena Aleksandrovna, Gymnazia «Salakhov's Laboratory», Surgut,
Strategies for Use of Electronic Testing in the Educational System ‘MOODLE’.
«Стратегии использования электронного тестирования в обучающей
системе MOODLE»
IV. Teacher’s and Student’s Assessment Literacy
1.Danilyuk Lyudmila Georgievna, School #46, Surgut, Project-Research Activity
as the Tool for the Assessment of Learners’ Metasubjective Results
Проектно-исследовательская деятельность как инструмент оценки
метапредметных результатов обучающихся
2. Simonova Olga Alexeevna, SurSU, Methods of Forming Students’ Assessment
Competence in English Language Teaching
V. Translation Quality Assessment Issues
1.Salo Victoria Eduardovna, SurSU, Postgraduate Course,
Assessment of Pragmalinguistic Aspects of Translation in Fiction Discourse
(on the example of A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s work “The Archipelago ‘GULAG”)
Оценка прагмалингвистических аспектов перевода в художественном
дискурсе (на примере произведения А.И. Солженицына «Архипелаг
ГУЛАГ» и его перевода на английский язык)
2.Rubtsova Kristina Romanovna, European Centre of Foreign Languages,
Surgut
Page 6 of 10
Сравнительный
анализ
перевода
средств
художественной
выразительности с английского языка на русский язык на материале
романа М. Брэдбери «Профессор Криминале» и его перевода на русский
язык
3.Zinovyev Nikita, Postgraduate, SurSU,
Оценка прагматического аспекта при переводе текстов относящихся к
политическому дискурсу"
VI. Testing and Assessment in Teaching German
16:10 –
16:30
Conference closing ceremony Room 201
Conference resolution
Certificates
SurSU library tour
Carolyn Westbrook focused on assessment of, for and as learning, introducing
these concepts and how they can be incorporated into the language classroom in
the first keynote speech. Carolyn’s workshops on day one focussed on encouraging
teachers to consider the constructs being tested when testing receptive skills and
also to consider the importance of marking criteria and rater reliability for
productive tasks.
Anzhelika Vladyko provided an overview of the examinations offered by Cambridge
Assessment for schoolchildren and focussed on how to develop students’ skills for
these and the Unified State Exam.
Larisa Sychugova gave an update relating to the Unified State Exam for 2016
Natalia Nikolaeva explained how teachers could use modern teaching technologies
to prepare students for the Unified State Exam and then gave a workshop on using
a tool for monitoring students’ independent learning.
On the second day, Carolyn’s keynote speech reviewed the concepts of assessment
of, for and as learning for those who had not been able to attend on the first day
and considered how these concepts could be used to prepare students for the
Unified State Exam.
Carolyn’s workshop on day two focussed on looking at some of the exam tasks and
in groups, participants had to discuss how they could make communicative
activities to practise the skills required for the construct being tested. The most
important aspect here was how students could acquire the skills required for the
test but without constantly doing past papers. In other words, how we can help
students increase their test score while ‘simultaneously increasing mastery of the
content domain tested’ (Popham, 1991: 13, in Green, 2015).
Inna Chmykh gave a workshop on the principles of listening assessment while Olga
Simonova built on the concept of assessment as learning by giving a workshop
relating to peer and self-assessment.
Page 7 of 10
Feedback
There were a lot of positive verbal comments during and after the conference.
However, although participants were asked to complete an online survey, only just
over 10% of the participants completed the questionnaire. We had intended to ask
participants for feedback before they left; however, as the weather was worsening
quite dramatically, we decided it would be sensible to let them get home and then
send out the electronic survey. Nonetheless, the feedback from the 16 participants
who responded was incredibly positive with 85% stating that they thought the
conference was excellent and 100% stating that it was either very good or
excellent.
Qualitative feedback comments on the strengths of the conference included:
‘Lots of practical tasks’
‘Variety of subjects discussed’
‘Useful reports’
‘Relevant theme’
‘Discussions of actual problems’
‘Practical advice’
‘Informative and useful sections’
‘Useful materials’
‘New information’
‘We are really lack [sic] professional advice and these conferences unite
professionals of different levels – it’s great!’
The weaknesses of the conference were given as:
‘Lack of time’
‘More workshops needed’
Page 8 of 10
‘Technical problems’
‘Lack of foreign guests’
Since two of these ‘negative’ comments relate to the desire to have more time
and more workshops, it could be assumed that the participants enjoyed the
conference.
However, a lesson for future EALTA-funded events would be to ensure that
participants complete the feedback questionnaire on site before leaving.
Outputs
In addition to the materials provided during the conference, the conference
proceedings are almost ready to be published and will be made available to
participants once they have been published.
‘Added value’
Due to having a considerable number of colleagues in Russia, thanks to the ProSET
project, I was able to participate in two other events without incurring any extra
costs for EALTA.
The first of these was in Samara. As my flight to Surgut went via Samara, I set off a
day earlier and was kindly accommodated by Samara National Research University,
who organised a language teaching and testing event as part of my visit. This event
attracted approximately 150 pre-and in-service schoolteachers and university
faculty and I was able to do a presentation to the participants on Teaching and
Testing Academic Listening and one on developing academic English skills.
The second additional event was a conference in Chelyabinsk. When colleagues
there found out that I would be in Russia, they arranged a conference for the
Chelyabinsk English Language Teachers’ Association and I was fortunate that
Page 9 of 10
Chelyabinsk State Pedagogical University kindly funded my trip from Moscow to
Chelyabinsk and back again so I could deliver the same presentations there as I had
delivered in Surgut. There were an additional 350 pre- and in-service teachers and
teacher trainers at this event.
In sum then, the EALTA-funded workshops and presentations were delivered to a
total of approximately 650 participants not only in Siberia, but also in the Urals
and the Volga region of Russia.
Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to thank EALTA and the selection committee
for putting their faith in me to deliver the event by accepting the event
application and funding the conference and workshops.
I would also like to thank Olga Simonova, Inna Chmykh and their team at Surgut
State University for the incredible organisation and to thank the Rector of Surgut
State University, Sergey Mikhailovich Kosyonok, for the generous financial and
administrative support provided in organising and running the event. Thanks for
the warm welcome to Surgut State University go to Tatiana Osmankina, Director of
Surgut Department of Education and Vitaly Apokin, Director of Institute of the
Humanities and Sport.
In terms of the additional events that were organized, I would like to express my
thanks to Viktoriya Levchenko, Dean of the Department of Foreign Languages and
Ludmila Kozhevnikova, Associate Professor, at Samara National Research University
and their team as well as the Samara English Teachers’ Association for the
Page 10 of 10
organisation and warm welcome, as well as the university for funding my stay
there.
Finally, I would like to thank Svetlana Sannikova from Chelyabinsk State
Pedagogical University for arranging the CHELTA event and to Vladimir Vitalyevich
Sadirin, the Rector of the University, for hosting my visit and, as always, for the
very warm welcome!
Dostları ilə paylaş: |