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

Tineke Brunfaut (PhD) is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Lancaster University (UK), where she specializes in language testing, second language listening, reading, and integrated skills. She has published widely in these areas, supervises doctoral students, and teaches on Lancaster’s online MA in Language Testing. She also regularly conducts language assessment training for teachers, and consultancies for professional and educational bodies around the world.

Judit Kormos

Judit Kormos (PhD) is Professor in Second Language Acquisition at Lancaster University (UK). She has published widely on the effect of dyslexia on learning additional languages. She is the author of several research papers that have investigated the accessibility of language tests for candidates with disabilities. She has advised numerous language test organisations on their access arrangement policies for test takers with disabilities and is the lead educator of the Dyslexia and Foreign Language Teaching massive open online learning course offered by FutureLearn.

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TEASIG webinar anniversary online event 2015-2025

The first TEASIG webinar took place on 7 January 2015 via Adobe Connect and attracted 45 participants. Since that date, TEASIG has hosted more than 65 sessions, and welcomed numerous speakers and over 5,000 attendees from all over the world.

To celebrate 10 years of TEASIG webinars, on 22 January 2025, we organized a special online event where we looked back on the past decade together with our guests, including former speakers, friends and collaborators. We talked about what TEASIG means to teachers and testers, how the TEASIG webinar series has helped to spread language assessment literacy within and beyond the IATEFL community, and even recalled some humorous anecdotes from our online encounters.

The anniversary event was hosted by:
Neil Bullock, who helped develop the webinar series for TEASIG and moderated from 2015 to 2021

Anna Soltyska, who took over in January 2021 and has been coordinating the series since.

and Reshmi Murali, who joined the team in October 2022.

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