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July 2011 | Kraków

4th International ALTE Conference in Kraków

telc - Language Tests discusses new advances in language teaching and the further development of CEF with testing experts from around the world

Together with 400 attendees from 60 countries at the 4th International ALTE Conference in Kraków from 7 to 9 July, the telc Test Development team discussed the influence of the Common European Framework (CEF) on language teaching and testing. One of the most important questions at the conference was: To what extent can we further develop the worldwide accepted CEF reference system? Impetus came from within Europe but also from non-European sources such as Professor Lyle F. Bachman from Los Angeles and Professor Elana Shohamy from Tel Aviv.

Under the patronage of the Council of Europe, the Conference also dealt with the particular theme of language tests as a means of immigration policy. A podium discussion, in which telc test expert Dr. Sibylle Plassmann participated, broadened the perspective beyond a single country’s borders – not only to various European approaches to social integration policies, but also to fundamental questions such as the relationship between a nation’s statehood and language politics.

telc GmbH, one of the chief sponsors of the Conference, contributed decisively to the high academic standard of the event. The test methodologists Beate Zeidler and Dr. Gudrun Klein spoke in their presentation about the influence of gender, age and native language on test results. Dr. Wassilos Klein reported on the opportunities with audio-visual comprehension and Dr. Sibylle Plassmann presented an initial study on motivation related to the telc Turkish program for schools.
 

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