Special Interest Group for Language Testing and Assessment for Academic Purposes

Background and Rationale

The EALTA SIG is dedicated to all research-, practice- and theory-based inquiry into testing and assessment for academic purposes.

Target Participants and Topic Areas

The EALTA AP SIG aims to bring together all stakeholders concerned and involved with this area of interest, such as:

  1. test developers, administrators, and assessors working on university pre-sessional or preparatory programmes, foundation programmes, or in-faculty adjunct courses where academic language and skills are taught in a foreign language;
  2. examiners of international language exams for academic purposes or international language exams with an academic language or skills component;
  3. teachers involved in university classroom assessment;
  4. teachers involved in the grading and administration of tests and assessments in an academic context; and
  5. researchers of academic discourse.

This EALTA SIG aims to provide a form for discussion and exchange and seeks to act as a catalyst that draws on and takes advantage of the many projects connected the assessment and testing for academic purposes by addressing issues and promoting aspects including, but not limited to, the following:

  1. Features of academic language and skills.
  2. Tensions and synergies of different types of tests commonly used on pre-sessional or foundation programmes, e.g., placement, formative, entry, and exit texts.
  3. Issues relating to standard setting on academic language programmes.
  4. Calibrating performance on institutional tests for academic purposes and assessments to the CEFR scales.
  5. Research into the target language domain for the purpose of testing and assessment for academic purposes.
  6. Research into the validity, reliability, and fairness of assessments and tests for academic purposes.
  7. Addressing issues relating to assessment criteria and the standardisation of grading procedures, especially for speaking and writing assessments.
  8. Addressing issues relating to rater reliability especially for speaking and writing assessments.

Forums for Exchange

To engage with the SIG, the following forums for discussion can be consulted and used:

  1. The EALTA SIG for Academic Purposes mailing list.
  2. SIG meetings at the annual EALTA conference (usually held in May or June).
  3. A local meeting in Europe at members’ request.
  4. Considering the common interests of the SIG for Academic Purposes and the SIG for Writing, the two groups
    usually hold joint meetings at the conference and separate meetings at different events.

For inquiries or more information please contact the current SIG coordinator Olivia Rütti-Joy: olivia.ruetti-joy@unifr.ch.