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TEASIG @ IATEFL 2023: Pre-Conference Event
2023-04-17 10:00 - 17:00 UTC | Harrogate Convention Centre, King's Rd, Harrogate HG1 5LA, Harrogate, United Kingdom
The TEASIG Pre-Conference Event (PCE) in Harrogate will focus on language assessment literacy for the classroom from the perspective of different stakeholders. Classroom-based assessment has been an increasing area of focus in ELT quite recently. There is a wealth of research on language assessment literacy (LAL) to do with teachers, what they should do to attain it, and the consequences of them not having it. Less attention has been paid to the LAL of learners and other stakeholders in school ecosystems. In this year’s PCE, we would like to explore LAL for the range of stakeholders that are engaged with LAL in the classroom from different perspectives in the teaching and learning process, and raise awareness of how increased LAL through the school system can support and elevate teaching and learning.
Participants can expect an engaging day of plenaries and workshops, with plenty of opportunities for discussion and interaction. The two plenaries will set the scene focusing firstly on the school system and then on teachers, and be followed by workshops looking at the practical aspects of LAL in the classroom. This year we have also built in a sharing and networking activity to enable participants more time for interaction and engagement.
For more information click here: https://tea.iatefl.org/events/teasig-iatefl-2023/

TEASIG @IATEFL 2023: Showcase Day
2023-04-20 10:00 - 17:45 UTC | Harrogate Convention Centre, King's Rd, Harrogate HG1 5LA, Harrogate, United Kingdom
For more information on the detailed programme of the Showcase Day click here: https://tea.iatefl.org/events/teasig-iatefl-2023-showcase-day/

Fostering European Language Portfolio (ELP) in Finnish Basic Education. Speakers: Ritva Kantelinen & Mari Kuusimäki
2023-05-23 08:00 - 17:00 UTC

CLIL classroom assessment: the process and the product. Speakers: Ali Shuhsuan Ke & Vivian Wen-Chi Liu
2023-06-20 08:00 - 09:00 UTC

TEASIG Online EVENT: Developing Assessment Tasks for the Classroom
2023-09-09 09:00 - 12:30 UTC
Presenters: Sakeh Manassian, Kathrin Eberharter, Olena Rossi, Michael Fields
Assessment tasks play a vital role in gauging student progress. While experts craft standardized tests, what about developing tailored assessment tasks for your classroom? As teachers, you assess for various goals daily. But have you ever considered creating your institution’s tests to measure term or course learning?
This online seminar delves into the art of developing classroom assessment tasks, understanding test item creation, required skills, and valuable resources. Gain insights from esteemed speakers:
Shakeh Manassian
Kathrin Eberharter
Olena Rossi
Michael Fields

TEASIG: Ecological validity of assessment in education
2023-10-25 16:00 - 17:00 UTC

TEASIG: Testing language learners remotely: prioritizing equity, fairness, and social justice
2023-11-23 09:00 - 10:00 (Europe/Paris)

Joint TEASIG & LTSIG webinar: Exploring the impact of Generative AI on language education: insights from teachers
2024-01-23 17:00 - 18:00 UTC
Speakers: Evelina Galaczi & Nahal Khabbazbashi
It feels like every morning we wake up to hundreds of opinion pieces on the use of Generative AI (Gen-AI) in education, but there is surprisingly little research into how English teachers are actually using this technology. In this webinar, we will explore language teachers’ use and attitudes to Gen-AI by drawing on findings from a recent study involving surveys from teachers from 70 countries and in-depth focus groups. Through the insights we share we hope to help the webinar participants better navigate the fast-changing AI landscape, develop a critical perspective towards this powerful and disruptive technology, and spark a few ideas for their own classrooms.

Joint TEASIG & TDSIG Webinar: Analysing teachers’ discourse around assessment: A critical discourse analysis perspective
2024-02-28 09:00 - 10:00 UTC
Speaker: Viktor Carrasquero
The presentation:
The British Council uses standardised criteria to assess our teachers’ classroom performance. These include assessment, understood as a formative, continuous practice, which “helps students and teachers monitor progress and achievement”. In recent years, there has been an organisation-wide drive to consolidate our teachers’ technical and practical understanding of assessment, which has been fleshed out in training and a heightened focus on classroom implementation.
In this context, I set out to explore teachers’ discourse construction of assessment, to ascertain their beliefs around this notion, with the assumption that looking at teachers’ conceptualisations might allow schools and organisations to devise professional development programmes that are more finely tuned to staff development needs.
I use a critical discourse analysis perspective, given that I aim to explore teachers’ concepts as evident in their speech. To this purpose, I gathered a speech sample obtained from 10 short teacher interviews. I use the theoretical construct of affect to analyse the teachers’ evaluative language around assessment.
Preliminary results highlight teachers’ developing understanding of assessment, their knowledge gaps around continuous assessment, their biases, and positive and negative affect markers.

The speakers:
Viktor Carrasquero is currently the Primary Courses Senior Teacher at the British Council in Hong Kong. His main research interests include teacher training, pronunciation and its teaching, second language acquisition, discourse analysis and variationist sociolinguistics. He is also a Trinity CertTESOL, Cambridge DELTA, and Trinity DipTESOL local tutor.
IATEFL Event page: https://www.iatefl.org/events/518
Zoom registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_43kjsGmJTWKWqmCyS4I3WQ#/registration

TEASIG PCE 2024: Item writing: from theory to practice
2024-04-15 09:30 - 17:00 (Europe/Paris) | The Brighton Centre, Kings Road, Brighton East Sussex, BN1 2GR, Brighton, United Kingdom

Joint TEASIG & IPSEN SIG webinar : Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in Practice: Candidate Reactions to Global English Accents in a Listening Test
2024-05-22 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris)
The British Council is a leader in promoting equality, diversity and inclusion, important themes for our products around the world, whether in the arts, society, inclusive education, teaching English for in the exams that we offer.
In 2020, the test production and quality assurance teams of Global Assessments began to implement a new EDI policy for item writing and quality review. This policy has since helped to ensure that our test content is accessible to and representative of our test candidates. The policy provides regulations on creating tests that are impartial and inclusive of a global candidature and for an international speaker of English.
This EDI item writing policy has been implemented with an intention to create long-term washback on classroom learning and teaching and surrounding materials. By making the test content more relatable and accessible to a global population, Global Assessments aims to create a more inclusive experience for English language learners and test takers.

TEASIG & ESPSIG Joint Conference in Switzerland
2024-09-06 08:00 - 2024-09-07 17:00 UTC | Zurich University (School of Health), Katharina-Sulzer-Platz 9, Winterthur, Switzerland
The IATEFL TEASIG and ESPSIG are pleased to announce a two-day joint conference in Winterthur, Switzerland. Our theme will bring together a diverse range of researchers and practitioners in ELT to share their views and practices on current global trends concerning language assessment and ESP. The main focus of the conference will be on the assessment of ESP. We are also inviting papers on change, challenges and innovation in other areas of assessment and in teaching ESP, for example with the following types of focus:

Use of AI in assessment
Critical thinking as a 21st century skill
Methods for assessing language proficiency in specific contexts
Innovative approaches for teaching language skills specific to particular domains
New assessment tools, rubrics, and criteria, and creative thinking in assessment
Syllabus development and alignment with learners’ needs
Essential competencies for teaching ESP/EAP
Unique challenges faced by ESP testers

The conference will also focus on further practice and research trends identified through contributions of the presenters and delegates.

IATEFL TEASIG & YLTSIG webinar
2024-09-17 08:00 - 17:00 UTC
The presentation:
Much thought has been dedicated to the role of feedback in the English language teaching classroom as well as in general education. My aim is to present an Action Research study carried out at lower secondary level that sought to identify the perception of students regarding the type of formative feedback they were regularly provided with by their teachers, access grounded information on their learning and aid the curriculum development in English Language and Literature.
To scaffold the students’ learning, the project-based intervention consisted of the planning, implementation and assessment of a collaborative inquiry inspired by deep learning, and integrated various forms of feedback, online and face-to-face. Students’ perception and demand of feedback were determined by the different forms of feedback and how reliable and meaningful they found the source of feedback.

The speaker:
Isabel Piñeiro Sorondo holds MA in Education and studied Literature and Translation. She is a Secondary School Teacher and currently based and working in Madrid. Previously she worked in Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

IATEFL TEASIG webinar
2024-10-23 08:00 - 17:00 UTC
TEASIG: Bridging the Gap: Developing Authentic Intertextual Reading-into- Writing Tasks for Academic Admissions Testing
Speaker: Dr. Nathaniel Owen

TEASIG & PronSIG Joint Webinar
2024-11-12 17:00 - 17:30 UTC
How far can we trust the results of an AI-marked speaking assessment?

There has been a lot of speculation about the future impact of AI on language teaching and learning, but in this webinar I will talk about a live use of AI. I will discuss the creation of an automated speaking test, looking at the following questions in particular:

How can a machine assess a learner’s ability to speak English?
Will its scores be as reliable as those of a human?
Can it assess communicative competence as well as technical competence in pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary, etc.?

I will talk about the way automated marking works, how it compares with human marking, and how to address issues of validity. I will discuss these questions in relation both to current research and to what was learned during the design and development of ClarityEnglish’s Dynamic Speaking Test, which was launched at IATEFL 2024.
Speaker- Martin Moore

Testing language learners’ multimodal skills: why, what and how?
2025-02-18 17:00 - 18:00 UTC
TEASIG: Testing language learners’ multimodal skills: why, what and how?

Language use in today’s world is vastly multimodal, not least because of technological advancements. For example, while watching TV or YouTube, we may simultaneously be listening to speakers, see their body language, look at the video footage and visuals, read phrases highlighting key info, and then text a friend about what we saw. Essentially, effective communication in social, educational and professional contexts nowadays requires multimodal literacy. It is therefore important that learners are given opportunities to develop their multimodal literacy and that teachers can evaluate learners’ progress and abilities in this area.
In this webinar, we will share examples of two types of multimodal integrated test tasks, which we developed and investigated for use in English language classrooms. We will provide tips on how such tasks can be made and show how learner performances can be marked. Our materials will be freely available to webinar participants.
Speakers:
Tineke Brunfaut & Judit Kormos

TEASIG - How can we help students cope with computer-adaptive testing?
2025-03-27 17:00 - 18:00 UTC
The rise of computer-adaptive testing presents unique challenges for both teachers and learners, including the uncertainty of the number, sequence, and weighting of questions in the exam. In this webinar, I will share my experience in helping students navigate the technological and emotional demands of computer-adaptive testing, as well as how I integrate artificial intelligence tools into exam preparation classes. I will place particular emphasis on the differences between preparing students for fixed-form exams and computer-adaptive tests. Finally, attendees will have the opportunity to reflect on how these strategies can be adapted to their own teaching contexts.
Speaker: Myleni Ishida

IATEFL, Edinburgh 2025: TEASIG Pre-Confernece Event
2025-04-07 09:30 - 17:00 UTC | EICC, The Exchange, 150 Morrison St, Edinburgh EH3 8EE, EH3 8EE, United Kingdom

TEASIG Webinar: How does assessment shape student identities?
2025-04-30 17:00 - 18:00 UTC

TEASIG – Teachers’ Language Assessment Literacy (LAL): Research and Pedagogy
2025-05-21 17:00 - 18:00 UTC
Given their continuous engagement in assessment, language teachers are key stakeholders informing language assessment literacy (LAL) research. In this webinar, the presenter will discuss current trends and challenges in studying teachers’ LAL, signaling possible directions in future research. He will also problematize instructional approaches to foster these stakeholders’ LAL. For these interrelated topics, the presenter will overview LAL studies and, most importantly, will provide pedagogical insights based on his research with Latin American teachers of English participating in language assessment courses.
This webinar might be useful for those interested in or tasked with the development of assessment courses for language teachers.
Speaker:
Frank Giraldo is a professor at the Foreign Languages Department of Universidad de Caldas in Manizales, Colombia. His main academic and research interest is the interface between language assessment literacy (LAL) and teachers’ professional development.

The CEFR CV and the Handbook: what’s in them for teachers?
2025-06-17 17:00 - 18:00 UTC
The CEFR was originally published in 2001 and, more recently, in 2020, the Companion Volume to the CEFR (CEFR CV) was published with new and updated scales. However, many practitioners are still unfamiliar with how these two documents can be used to align teaching and assessment materials to the CEFR. With this in mind, the publication, ‘Aligning Language Education with the CEFR: a handbook’, was published.
The main objective of this webinar is to familiarise practitioners with the CEFR CV and the Handbook and to present a variety of ways to approach and use these two documents. We will start by briefly describing the objectives and the structure of the two documents, and then proceed to propose different points of entry to their content with different activities which can contribute to improve teaching and assessment in different education levels.

TEASIG - AI and item writing for high stakes testing: insights from text and multiple-choice question generation
2025-10-09 17:00 - 18:00 UTC
We now live in an age of myriad opportunities to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI), especially large language models (LLMs), in a range of educational contexts. From a testing perspective this has included opportunities to develop secure, quality test content (including text passages and comprehension question for reading and listening tasks) using online platforms. In this session, we will discuss how one Awarding Organisation has implemented a process for item writing which exploits the available technology whilst adhering to best testing practice. We discuss how to use AI ethically and efficiently to generate test content, whilst keeping a place for human creativity and ingenuity. We consider the limitations and challenges that AI brings to the fore and consider a process of good practice for content development from the perspectives of both production and review.

TEASIG - Fine-tuning the interactional competence construct: Exploring interactional practices in online L2 talk
2025-11-04 17:00 - 18:00 UTC
We can probably all agree that interactional skills are important to any L2 learner of English but how do you go about identifying interactional competence in L2 speech? And how can you do this on an individual rather than shared basis? In this session we’ll outline some key points in relation to assessing interactional competence, the impact of technology on interaction and online interactions. We’ll then focus on what an interactional practices approach is and how it might help us to unpick interactional competence for learning and assessment purposes
Speaker:
Nicholas Glasson

Nicholas Glasson is currently a Senior Research Manager at Cambridge University Press & Assessment. He has an M.Ed. in Applied Linguistics from the Open University and a PhD in Language Assessment with the Centre for Research in English Language Learning and Assessment, University of Bedfordshire. His thesis, focused on interactional competence, was the winner of the 2025 Jacqueline Ross TOEFL Dissertation Award. Nick’s work has been published in Classroom Discourse and Assessing Writing and he is a peer reviewer for several journals including Applied Linguistics, Language Assessment Quarterly and Language and Education.

TEASIG – Automated Assessment of L2 Learners’ Written Production: Can AI Make a Difference?
2026-01-07 17:00 UTC
The development of writing skills constitutes a core component of second language education, yet the assessment of learners’ written production remains a persistent challenge. Providing reliable scores and informative feedback is both time-intensive for teachers and problematic in terms of consistency in high-stakes examinations. Over the past decades, automated assessment systems have sought to address these issues. They were driven by advances in natural language processing and artificial intelligence. However, until recently such systems could only be developed by highly specialised teams for narrowly defined tasks, limiting their adaptability and accessibility for classroom use. The recent emergence of Generative AI and chatbots marks a turning point, offering accessible tools for automated assessment and feedback. This talk reviews the evolution of automated systems for L2 writing evaluation, examines the opportunities afforded by GenAI-based chatbots, and presents recent empirical findings on their effectiveness and pedagogical implications.
Speaker:
Agnieszka LEŃKO-SZYMAŃSKA

Agnieszka LEŃKO-SZYMAŃSKA is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw. Her research interests lie at the intersection of second language acquisition, language teaching and assessment, and corpus linguistics, with a particular focus on lexis and phraseology. She is actively involved in teacher education and professional development. Her monograph Defining and Assessing Lexical Proficiency (Routledge, 2020) explores the construct of word use in L2 writing. She has also published widely on the applications of corpora in language teaching, learning, and assessment.

AI as a Critical Opponent: Effects on L2 Writers’ Warranting and Argument Quality
2026-02-16 16:00 - 17:00 UTC
Abstract:

Assessing L2 students’ argumentative writing quality requires attention not only to the presence of key components including thesis, evidence, counterargument, and rebuttal, but also to the depth of reasoning that connects these elements. Many EFL students can produce structural components yet struggle to justify their claims clearly. This study investigates whether AI-mediated dialogic practice via ChatGPT 5.1 can improve argument quality in a B2-level writing course. In a quasi-experimental design, both groups receive instruction on argumentation, but the experimental group also engages in AI-supported pro–opponent exchanges in which the AI challenges claims, questions evidence, and presents counterarguments for students to rebut. Essays from both groups will be rated with an analytic rubric aligned with CEFR principles and adapted through stakeholder input. By foregrounding assessment outcomes, the study examines the potential of dialogic AI to support instructional design and evidence-based evaluation in argumentative writing.

Date:
16.02.2026, 16:00 UK time

Speakers:
Burcu Kayarkaya
Selahattin Yılmaz

Bios:
Burcu Kayarkaya is an ELT instructor in the Modern Languages Department at Yıldız Technical University (YTU). She has also worked as a language test developer and item writer/editor for a high-stakes exam body and currently working for the EU–Council of Europe Joint Project on foreign language education quality in Türkiye as a language test developer. She holds an MA in English Language Teaching, and her PhD focused on translanguaging-informed writing instruction and assessment design. She has presented in various international conferences, including IATEFL 2025, where she was awarded the TOEFL scholarship.
Selahattin Yılmaz, Ph.D. is an EAP instructor at Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul and currently serves as a language test developer for the EU–Council of Europe Joint Project on foreign language education quality in Türkiye. He completed his Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics at Georgia State University and has published in leading journals such as English for Specific Purposes, Journal of English for Academic Purposes and Porta Linguarum. His research focuses on second language writing, corpus-based analysis, and AI-mediated pedagogy, and he has presented at major international venues including AAAL, AACL, and EALTA.

Webinar TEASIG - Dealing with group assessment: the need for collaborative assessment literacy
2026-03-17 15:00 - 16:00 UTC
In language education we utilise a lot of groupwork, having students interact and communicate with each other. It’s good to talk. We can also ask them to collaborate more formally and complete course assignments together, like a group presentation, group essay, or group report. While there are learning affordances to students working together, there are challenges when it comes to assessment.
This webinar will draw on research conducted in the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) context, exploring the beliefs and practices of EAP professionals around collaborative assessment. This will help illustrate the need for educators to develop their collaborative assessment literacy and provide the necessary questions to consider to be able to successfully navigate what can be a complex, but rewarding, type of assessment.

Speaker:
Dr. Peter Levrai

Dr. Peter Levrai is a University Teacher of English at the University of Turku. He has published and presented on teaching material development, academic presentations and student collaboration and collaborative assessment. He also co-authored the British Council ELTons winning learner resource, Develop EAP: a sustainable academic English skills course.
