I think I’m reasonably good at producing test materials because I have some experience in producing commercial teaching materials for publication. I think that you need to be able to produce high-quality materials for testing, as well as for teaching and published materials. So, I do think that I am reasonably good in that area. I am confident that I know how to analyze test results to some extent, but there are certain statistical techniques that I don’t know much about. I can do the basics like item analysis and internal reliability and that kind of thing. I think the crunch area for me actually is turning scores into something which is reportable, and I suspect that this is an area of weakness for many teachers involved in EAP assessment.


EAP assessment voices: Training in EAP assessment


Although I haven’t had a lot of training, I’m aware of how complex EAP assessment is and how important it is. You just have to get the level right and you have to assess what you’ve taught. So, I’m aware of the issues and if I don’t quite know how to do it, I have a sense that I should find out or should ask a colleague for help. Logistically, the biggest challenge is continuing to recreate assessments, because you need new assessments each year or sometimes each term.


In my MA in Applied Linguistics, I took a Testing course. That’s what I did at the beginning. And then I taught on a pre-sessional course. When I did that, I learnt a lot because the course director was also a testing teacher. So, I also developed a lot of skills related to EAP assessment through being involved with the marking and moderation process for pre-sessional EAP tests and through my more general experience of grading standardized external tests through exam boards. I’m also still teaching academic English and designing tests to see whether our students meet the requirements of the schools where they will be studying for their degrees.


I think I have learnt most through trial and error and through working with more experienced colleagues. I think there’s very little formal professional developmental in EAP and I think at some places I’ve worked, there’s not a great deal of agreement with some of the fundamentals. So, I think it’s been through work with course leaders who have shared their thoughts, and then experimenting with things like wanting to try it myself. I think what BALEAP are doing with EAP teacher competencies is very interesting.


184 Chapter 15: EAP assessment voices


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