The full range and scope of language testing was represented at ALTE 2008 – below are just three examples of the range of the topics covered.

Rachel Lunde Brooks serves as Applied Linguist and subject matter expert for FBI’s Language Testing and Assessment Unit.  At  ALTE2008. She explained how the FBI was using forensic linguistics to catch out people who attempted to cheat on their tests for translators.

Even if cheating is undetected in the exam room, responses can be analysed by computer using formulae developed for ascertaining authorship attribution.
Rachel said: “Although examinees’ translations of test passages may have similar content, there is still a great amount of variation in how the information is expressed. We can use computer analysis to compare one candidate’s exam answers with the typical behaviour of other candidates’ responses. If a pair of answers shows tremendous similarity, it can indicate cheating. 

Her presentation concluded that collocations, or matches within strings of various lengths, and analysis of once-shared and unique hapaxes appear to be effective techniques for determining cheating on translation tests.

Philip Shawcross, President of the International Civil Aviation English Association, presented his paper: Social, Safety and Economic Impacts of Global Language Testing in Aviation outlining the impact of a new test for pilots and the potential this has for testing for people working in other critical situations.

The new test requirement, introduced by the International Civil Aviation Organisation  follows incidents * 1970 and 1995 where more than 1,500 passengers and flight crew lost their lives in accidents where inadequate English language proficiency on the part of a controller or pilot had been a contributing factor.

Mr Shawcross said the new test: “will certainly act as a powerful force driving up standards of spoken English in the aviation community world wide. Indeed, in Europe and elsewhere, as regional legislation is brought into line with ICAO requirements, the trend is to aim at higher levels of proficiency.

“These standards represent the first language testing policy affecting a global industry, and naturally present a very complex set of consequences and requirements. It may go on to be a benchmark used by other tests of English in critical environments, such as policing, the medical profession and international military actions.”

Radmila Bodrič from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia outlined how standardised foreign language testing was needed if Serbia is to achieve its socio-political plans to be a fully integrated part of Europe.

She said the programme of education reform, begun in 2001, had only ever been partially implemented, so that today, Serbia has no officially accredited assessment and testing body responsible for aligning the national foreign language curriculum and examinations with the CEFR.

Although a large number of Serbian citizens possess foreign language qualifications, lack of standardisation means these certificates will seldom be recognised by bodies other than the issuing ones.

Radmila said: ‘Despite the good grades and recognition of international certificates by high-quality language schools, what is still missing is their full recognition and integration into the education system, namely state-run schools and universities, due to a general lack of coordination and regulation.

Radmilla recommended regulation and closer cooperation between educational institutions and certificate issuing bodies to ensure the recognition of international examinations and other high-quality certificates. This would enable automatic accreditation of students’ language learning, based on the certificates they already possess.
She warned: ‘If the situation remains unchanged, we run the risk of creating doubt among Serbia’s general public regarding the usefulness of taking international examinations.’