TESOL Bangladesh organises int’l webinar on online language assessment and social justice
TESOL Society of Bangladesh organised an international webinar for the inauguration of its English Language Testing and Assessment (ELTA) SIG (Special Interest Group), on Friday evening.
The webinar titled ‘Zooming in and out: Online Language Assessment, Health Emergencies and Social Justice’ was organised at 7:00pm.
Maggi Lussi Bell, editor and interim coordinator of IATEFL TEASIG (Testing, Evaluation and Assessment SIG), was the special guest and inaugurated the TESOL BD English Language Testing and Assessment SIG. In her inaugural speech, Bell shared the activities, missions of the IATEFL TEASIG and offered possible future collaborative ventures with TESOL BD ELTA SIG.
Prithvi N. Shrestha, School of Languages and Applied Linguistics, The Open University, UK, presented the keynote speech at the webinar and presented the ongoing situation of Online Language Assessment and its severe consequences on both language teachers and their learners.
He discussed the Dynamic Assessment approach as a solution to the challenges for language assessment from a social justice perspective.
Professor Goutam Roy, English Textbook Writer and Curriculum Specialist, NCTB, Bangladesh and Nasreen Sultana, Consultant, Educational Developer, Conestoga College, Canada were present in the session as panelists.
Reflecting on the limitations in the practices of English language assessment and socio-economic & digital-divide at the national level in Bangladesh, professor Roy shared the alternative language assessment procedures taken by the ministry of education during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nasreen Sultana pointed out the need to pre-think the assessment procedures in line with the idea of student’s Zone of Proximal Development rather than focusing on the grades as an achievement.
The webinar, as a whole, addressed the issues of imposed challenges in practicality, validity, fairness and equitability in the field of Online Language Assessment and shared some approaches as future direction of Online Assessment to alleviate the ongoing problems.
In the question-answer session, the speakers addressed some participants’ questions and provided an informative and lively discussion.
Md. Ali Rezwan Talukdar, Convenor, TESOL BD English Language Testing and Assessment SIG and associate professor, Department of English, Comilla University discussed the SIG’s mission, vision, action plan, and the benefits of joining the SIG.
The president of TESOL Society of Bangladesh, professor Sayeedur Rahman, Department of English Language, Institute of Modern Languages (IML), University of Dhaka, delivered his speech elaborating on the contributions of the TESOL Society of Bangladesh in the field of English language teaching in Bangladesh.
The event concluded with a vote of thanks by the vice-president of TESOL Society of Bangladesh, Hamidul Haque, assistant professor and head, Department of English Language, American International University- Bangladesh. He appreciated the efforts of the SIG members in organising the webinar and provided insightful future directions for the SIG.