A series of lectures on the theme of “Language Testing” was delivered by Dr. Luke Harding, Lancaster University in Conference Room 4502, School of Foreign Languages from 27 to 29 March 2018. The lectures were hosted by Dr.Xu Ying and attracted numerous teachers and students from both inside and outside SCUT.
During the lectures
Dr.Xu Ying
With the focus on “Language Testing”, the 2.5-day-long lectures were composed of 5 topics:“Introduction to Basic Concepts”, “Listening Testing”,“Reading Testing”, “Speaking Testing” and “WritingTesting”. Dr. Luke Harding gave a vivid description of the concepts within the field of “Language Testing” in a humorous way, bringing the audience into a colorful and mysterious world of“Language Testing” in the beautiful spring.
Students listening carefully
In the first class, the classroomwas crowded with teachers and students in English major as well as English teachers from other universities. During discussion, Dr. Luke Harding instructed the audience to brainstorm what is “Language Testing” in groups. Heated discussion went on within the groups and various views sparked. Meanwhile, Dr. Luke Harding participated in the discussion and provided valuable advice. Finally, he illustrated the five principles of “Language Testing”.
Students expressing their views
During the following four lectures, Dr. Luke Harding focused on “Listening Testing”,“Reading Testing”, “Speaking Testing” and “WritingTesting”. Certain exercises were attached to each topic to strengthen what they had acquired. For example, the teachers and students were required to identify which ability was tested through the four tests, to think over what ability was needed for the tests and to ponder on how to improve tests to be more fair, effective and comprehensive. Throughout the lectures, Dr. Luke Harding was excellent at giving examples of the audience’s experiences in tests to illustrate various linguistic concepts and views clearly. Even during the breaks, Dr. Luke Harding was often surrounded by the audience discussing the academic topics.
Dr.Luke Harding giving vivid illustrating
The academic feast ended on the morning of March 29, benefiting the audience a lot by broadening their views on “Language Testing” and renewing their ideas on listening, speaking, reading and writing.
As we know, Dr. Luke Harding is a senior lecturer in School of Language and English, Lancaster University as well as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Language Testing. He has rich experience in English teaching and teacher training in Australia and Japan and has researched on language testing for decades. His research focuses on language testing and applied linguistics, especially on listening assessment, pronunciation, understandability, language assessment literacy and English as a Lingua Franca and communicative language assessment, etc.
