Workshop: Pearson Test of English Academic: Developing an innovative test of academic English
May 16th 2009
2pm to 5pm
Venue: Télécom ParisTech
Presented by: Michael Howard and John H.A.L. de Jong
News flash! This event is FREE to TESOL France members AND non-members!
If you like, becoming a member of TESOL France on the day will also be
possible.
Mike Howard, Manager for Western Europe, will give an introduction to Pearson and Pearson Language Tests before handing over to John H.A.L. de Jong, Vice President Test Development.
John will present information on a brand new English language test, PTE Academic, aimed at assessing students’ ability to cope with the language requirements in academic settings. The test will be available on demand and will require students to deal with authentic language as used in academic settings in universities around the world where English is the language of instruction.
The test will make use of a large number of different innovative item types to ensure a complete picture of candidates’ language abilities and to minimize the dependency on multiple choice items. The tasks operationalized in the tests will require interactive and integrative usage of language skills. In this workshop John will demonstrate how all four skills, reading, writing, speaking and listening will be addressed in a single session and how student responses will be rated centrally to avoid dependence on local tolerance for internationally less effective usages. The test will be administered in secure test centres worldwide. Several methods have been used to ensure alignment with the Common European Framework for Languages. Furthermore we expect results will be available to candidates themselves and to a number of universities of their choice within 5 business days.
John H.A.L. de Jong is Vice President of Test Development at Pearson. He has over 30 years experience in language testing. John graduated in General Linguistics, French and English languages from Leiden University and obtained a Ph.D. in Educational Measurement from Twente University. He has published articles and books on language assessment and educational measurement. He has specialised in empirical scaling and the development of internationally standardised reporting scales of language proficiency. He was involved in developing the Common European Framework for Languages. Before starting his career in language testing, John had been teaching French for seven years in secondary schools.
Mike Howard came to France in 1992 as a musician touring in a band. After meeting his future wife (and waving goodbye to the camper van!) he decided on a career in teaching. This included three years spent at the Calandretta – a local Occitan school in Montpellier. He specialised in a communicative task based approach to language acquisition going against the grain of grammar driven learning and introduced new evaluation and grading processes based on positive achievement. Following this he spent three years as a trainer for AFPA (National Vocational Training Organisation) and took a key role in a national project developing evaluation methods and certification within specific vocational domains.
After studying and obtaining an MBA at the Montpellier Business School (where he won the Prix d’excellence) he began working as Business Development Manager for Pearson Language Tests developing a network of Test Centres throughout France and Switzerland. He now is responsible for managing PLT in France, Switzerland, Spain Italy and Portugal.