The Covid 19 pandemic of 2020 has had an incredible impact on education and society right across the globe. Language testing has not been immune from this, and we have seen significant impediments to traditional test delivery models both in the East Asia region and beyond. Different government and industry responses to the pandemic have emerged as ministries and institutions struggled to deal with the situation in locally appropriate ways. Issues of validity and fairness have emerged as changes to local systems have had varying degrees of success.
In this symposium, speakers representing a range of geographies and organisations from across the region will present on specific language testing contexts, highlighting the unique issues that emerged and discussing the solutions proffered and the impact those solutions have had on stakeholders.
The four talks will be followed by an analysis of the key issues and a question and answer session.
| Disruption in language assessment and education in 2020: Challenges and responses | ||
| Discussant: Prof. Barry O’Sullivan, Assessment Research Group, British Council, UK |
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| No. | Title of Presentation | Author(s) |
| 1 | In-region response |
Prof. Jin Yan (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China) |
| 2 | Impact on Australia-destined students from the EU | Dr. Morena Botelho de Magalhaes (University of Auckland, New Zealand) and Mr. Stephen Walker (University of Queensland, Australia) |
| 3 | UK response | Dr. John Pill (UKALTA, UK) |
| 4 | Focus on a migrant-support initiative in Singapore |
Ms Caroline Rogers (ItsRainingRaincoats, Singapore) Dr. Johanna Motteram (British Council, Australia) |