This PowerPoint helps students to consider the concept of infinity.
Anthea Wilson, Ben Beaumont: What does "can do" mean to you?
1. Eaquals International Conference, Lisbon, 21 – 23 April 2016
What does ‘can do’ mean to you?
Linking practicality and validity in language
assessment.
Anthea Wilson, Head of Test Production
Ben Beaumont, TESOL Qualifications Manager
Trinity College, London
www.eaquals.org
2. What do language exams test?
language
skills?
transferable
skills?
study
strategies?
3. Cline 1:
A. What is desirable?
B. What is practical?
3
Speaking task
based on
personal
experience
Examination task
to elicit target
language
structures
4. Cline 2:
A. What is desirable?
B. What is practical?
4
Test taker
competence
Communicative
competence
5. What do students need to succeed?
Communicative
Competence
Communicative Competence Model
Bachman & Palmer (2010)
Discourse
competence
Strategic
competence
Linguistic
competence
Socio-linguistic
competence
6. What do students need to succeed?
• 1. Critical thinking and problem solving
• 2. Collaboration and leading by influence
• 3. Agility and adaptability
• 4. Initiative and entrepreneurship
• 5. Effective oral and written communication
• 6. Accessing and analysing information
• 7. Curiosity and imagination
Tony Wagner, Expert In Residence, Innovation Lab of Harvard (2015)
Transferable Skills
7. Interaction in performance
assessment of speaking skills
(from McNamara, 1997, p 453)
performance
rating
candidate
taskinterlocutor
rater
scale / criteria
9. Trinity College London’s exam suite
Language qualifications
• Graded Exams in Spoken English
(GESE)
• Integrated Skills in English Exams
(ISE)
Teacher education qualifications
• CertTESOL
• DipTESOL
10. References:
Bachman, L. F., & Palmer, A. (2010). Language assessment in practice:
Developing language assessments and justifying their use in the real
world. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McNamara, T. (1997). ‘Interaction’ in second language performance
assessment: whose performance? Applied linguistics, 18, pp. 444 – 466.
Wagner, T., & Compton, R. A. (2015). Creating innovators: The making of
young people who will change the world. Simon and Schuster.
