ΑΙΤΗΣΗ ΓΙΑ ΣΥΜΜΕΤΟΧΗ ΣΤΟ ΣΥΝΕΔΡΙΟ ΜΕ ΤΙΤΛΟ:

 ‘Γλωσσική Αξιολόγηση – Τι χρειάζονται και τι θέλουν οι καθηγητές Αγγλικών στην Κύπρο’

Application for participation in

1st Multiplier Event – TALE

´Language Assessment: What EFL Teachers in Cyprus Need and Want´

 

Δηλώνω ότι ενδιαφέρομαι να συμμετάσχω στο πιο πάνω συνέδριο που θα πραγματοποιηθεί στο Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου,E010, Λευκωσία, Κύπρος, Σάββατο 28 Μαίου (9.00πμ-1.30μμ) – βλ. πρόγραμμα στην επόμενη σελίδα.

I would like to participate in the above conference that will take place at the University of Cyprus, E010, Kallipoleos 75, Nicosia, Cyprus on Saturday 28th May 2016 (9.00-13.00) – see programme following.

 

Επώνυμο: Last name:
Όνομα: First name:
Ειδικότητα: School subjects:
Όνομα Σχολείου/Τηλέφωνο Σχολείου: School name/phone number:
Αριθμός Τηλεφώνου σας: Your phone number:
Email address:
Επιλογή Εργαστηρίου – Νούμερο/τιτλος: Workhsop – Number/title:

 

 

............................/.........../2016                                               Ο/Η Αιτ…………………………

                                                                                               

 

 

                                                                                     (Υπογραφή και ονοματεπώνυμο)

                                                                                     (Signature and full name)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Erasmus+ TALE Project

Multiplier Event #1

Language Assessment: What EFL Teachers in Cyprus Need and Want

Saturday 28th May 2016

Hosted by the Department of English Studies, University of Cyprus

Venue: University of Cyprus, Kallipoleos 75 (Kentrika), Nicosia

 

 

 

 

 

Dina Tsagari

Department of English Studies, University of Cyprus

 

Plenary 1: Erasmus+ "Teachers' Assessment Literacy Enhancement (TALE)", Results from Phase 1: EFL Teachers’ voices from Cyprus

 

This talk will present the aims of a three-year long project involving a diverse network of experts from different European countries who aim to develop an efficient and sustainable LTA training infrastructure primarily for English language teachers to help them develop sufficient assessment literacy skills. The project entitled 'Teachers' Assessment Literacy Enhancement (TALE)' aims to contribute towards:

- the development of innovative training materials and services that will primarily be delivered through online training systems in synchronous and asynchronous modes with taught and self-access options; the proposed training system is expected to offer continuous support and mentoring to teachers in the countries involved in the project with the intention to roll out the services across Europe by the end of the three year period;

- an innovative approach to the sharing of the LTA expertise between European educational contexts that takes advantage of web-based collaboration tools;

-collaboration between and within disciplines and between various training sectors in order to foster efficient and meaningful assessment suitable for language learners in primary and secondary education.

 

The presentation will focus on the first phase of the project which involves a needs analysis through extensive consultation with ELTs and their students to ensure that the training course designed for the purposes of the project would meet their needs. This study adopts an exploratory method design based on quantitative data collected via a questionnaire designed to investigate how teachers and their students perceive assessment, the types of assessment used, the impact of these assessments and suggestions for improvement. The survey was conducted among EFL teachers and  students in Cyprus. The findings provide nuanced in-depth understanding of the assessment needs of ELTs and their students which contribute to the identification of assessment priorities and the development of assessment training strategies that are contextually situated. 

 

Dina Tsagari is an Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics/TEFL with specialization in Language Testing and Assessment currently working in the Department of English Studies, University of Cyprus, Cyprus. She is a member of language teaching and assessment societies and has coordinated and participated in various research projects in Europe, USA and Hong Kong. She has been a language testing consultant for various well-known language examination boards and an editorial/advisory board member of international referee journals, conferences and publishing committees. She has published widely and presented in numerous local and international conferences (seeucy.academia.edu/DinaTsagari/CurriculumVitae)

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Claudia Mewald

Department of National and International Co-operations and Research, University College of Teacher Education in Lower Austria

 

Plenary 2: Assessing foreign language learners: The contribution of formative assessment to teaching and learning

 

Assessment is important for teaching and learning for many reasons and classroom-based assessment has become increasingly popular in recent years. However, in order to make assessment work, teachers and learners need to become assessment literate. They need to know the reasons why assessment is important for the learning process and to understand how assessment and learning interact. This talk will focus on the roles assessment plays in the design of teaching as well as in the decision making events or processes that describe the success or failure of teaching and learning.

 

To establish common ground, an overview of the testing and assessment terminology and the principles that underlie summative and formative assessment will be given. Moreover, the relevant forms of classroom- based assessment and the practical approaches to assess learning and learning outcomes in the context of primary and secondary education will be discussed. 

 

Claudia Mewald is a senior lecturer at the University College of Teacher Education in Lower Austria, Baden, where she leads the English language programme and teaches several courses in the area of methodology, applied linguistics, testing and assessment. She has researched and published in the field of second language teaching, content and language integrated learning, and the washback of testing and assessment on learning. Her current research focuses on competence-based instruction and language acquisition in plurilingual contexts.

__________________________________________________________________________________George Michaeloudes, Phd cand.

Department of English Studies, University of Cyprus

 

Workshop 1: How to Promote Learning and Foreign Language Acquisition through Formative Assessment Practices.

This workshop demonstrates the vital role that Formative Assessment (FA) plays in second/foreign language teaching and learning, by examining the relationship between language teaching, assessment and learning. In this workshop, FA is defined as a process of assessing learning, modifying instruction according to information gathered through teachers’, students’ and their peers’ activities, and promoting learning with the aim of improving learners’ competence (Black & Wiliam, 2009). According to the literature, FA was found to have significant effects on all levels of education e.g. primary(Brookhart et al., 2010; Carless, 2005; Rea-Dickins, 2006), secondary (Davison, 2007; Wang, 2008) and higher (Asghar, 2010; Jacoby, Heugh, Bax, & Branford-White, 2013; Weurlander, Söderberg, Scheja, Hult, & Wernerson, 2012). Therefore, this workshop aims to provide an insight on how teachers and more specifically foreign/second language teachers, can use FA techniques i.e. observation, questioning, formative feedback, ‘self-’ and ‘peer-’ assessment, sharing of learning objectives and success criteria and formative use of summative tests effectively, for the promotion of learning and language acquisition.

George Michaeloudes is a PhD candidate in Linguistics at the Department of English studies, University of Cyprus and a primary school teacher with specialisation in teaching English (MSc TESOL, University of Bristol). He has worked as a research and teaching assistant at the University of Cyprus. He is a member of EALTA, CyLing and CyTEA. His research interests include formative assessment, classroom interaction and CLIL.

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Eleni Meletiadou, PhD cand. 

Department of English Studies, University of Cyprus

 

Workshop 2: Peer assessment: a friend or a foe for EFL/ESL teachers?

Due to the growing focus on learner independence (European Communities, 2004), peer assessment (PA) has received a lot of attention in recent years. It has been found to increase teachers’ awareness in scaffolding students to achieve learning goals (OECD, 2005). While teacher feedback can be more specific and rigorous, student feedback can be more immediate and ease the teacher’s burden (De Salvador & Juan, 2016). Jonsson, Lundahl, & Holmgren (2015) find that teachers in general feel that their workload has reached ‘a saturation point’. Exposing students continually to PA will, besides equipping them with assessment skills, encourage students to strive towards excellence (Admas and Mabusela, 2015). This workshop aims to answer questions such as: (a) What is PA? (b) Why employ PA? (c) What kind of problems may teachers face and how can they overcome them? Finally, it will provide practical advice for teachers who would like to implement PA in their EFL/ESL classrooms.

 

Eleni Meletiadou is a PhD candidate in Linguistics, Department of English Studies, University of Cyprus. She is currently the tutor of the ‘Academic Writing and Grammar’ workshop for undergraduate students of the Department of English Studies in terms of a full scholarship she has received from the University of Cyprus. Her research interests include classroom-based language assessment, collaborative language learning and teacher training. Her work, which primarily focuses on assessment and writing, has been presented in national and international conferences. She has also published on peer assessment, process writing and washback.

__________________________________________________________________________________Christina Nicole Giannikas, PhD

Cyprus University of Technology

 

Workshop 3: Assessing Language Learners through Games: what every language teacher needs to know

The purpose of the workshop is two-fold: 1) to present participants with authentic material and hands-on techniques on using games to assess Language Learners, and 2) how to apply student-centred approaches to assessment and its effects.

 

More specifically, the speaker aims to present games for primary school learners and early teens, aged 7-13, and techniques on how to successfully apply them. The aim is to encourage language teachers or trainees to embrace the benefits of using children’s games in the classroom, and bring about the positive effects it can have on their assessment and, evidently, their foreign language development.

 

Once the creative element is presented and demonstrated, the participants will be given the opportunity to discover key concepts of student-centred approaches of assessment. The speaker will introduce practical elements and will explore how it informs classroom teaching and improves language learning. The proposed workshop will provide participants with valuable tools to conceptualize and even create their own assessment plan with the use of games. By the end of the workshop, participants will have obtained authentic materials, hands-on guidance on how to apply games for assessment, and how to apply student-centred approaches for language learning assessment.

 

Dr Christina Nicole Giannikas holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics. Since the completion of her PhD, Christina has been involved in a number of research projects in the UK, Greece and Cyprus. Her teaching career history spans from young to adult language teaching in the UK, Greece and Cyprus where she developed extensive experience with monolingual and multilingual students. Christina is currently a Special Scientist for CUT, a teacher trainer, and Social Media Coordinator for the IATEFL Young Learners and Teenagers Special Interest Group.

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Irini Papakammenou, PhD cand.

Department of English Studies, University of Cyprus

 

Workshop 4: Identifying and eliminating negative washback on exam preparation classes

Exams and especially high-stakes exams, exert a powerful influence on both the teaching and learning process. Exams influence not only language learners who are preparing to take these exams but also language teachers who try to help students prepare for these exams. The term ‘washback effect’ is used to identify this influence of exams on the teaching process, teachers and learners. This workshop aims to enhance participants’ awareness of the washback effect on their teaching and specifically to identify the influence of the exam or exams, they prepare their students for, on their teaching methodology. The workshop will focus on the teaching practices (activities, tasks and teaching strategies) used in exam preparation classes. Teachers will be encouraged to identify negative washback on their teaching practices and discuss why and how they make their methodological choices. Suggestions on how to decrease or even eliminate negative washback as well as ways to employ communicative methodologies will be provided.

Irini Papakammenou is currently a PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics at the Department of English Studies, University of Cyprus. Her research topic is about the influence of EFL exams on teachers’ teaching practices in Greece. Irini is also the owner of a center of foreign languages in Greece and has had several years of teaching experience at all levels of EFL, ESL learners and exam preparation courses.