Special Interest Groups' Pre-Conference Event (PCE)

39th International Annual IATEFL Conference and Exhibition
at City Hall and National Museum & Galleries
Cardiff, Wales
5 – 9 April 2005

Tuesday 5 April 2005 – 10 am – 5 pm
BESIG (Business English) and TEA (Testing, Evaluation and Assessment) SIGs

 

"A fool in a hurry drinks (Business English) TEA with a fork"

As part of the IATEFL conference 2005, BESIG and TEASIG joined forces to run a pre-conference event.

Testing, assessment and evaluation can sometimes be neglected in business English teaching, especially when time is short. Yet there is little doubt that TEA can help raise standards in teaching and learning business English, in particular when it is tailored to the context in which the language is to be used. In the PCE we discussed possible objectives of TEA in business English and looked at the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches in different contexts.

Speakers for this PCE came from both academic and business backgrounds. The full schedule is available in Word format and in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

Dr Barry O’Sullivan gave an overview of assessment in the business context, an historical overview of business language testing as well as insights into current practice in the area and a theoretical framework for describing specific purpose tests. The following materials from Barry's talk are available for download:

• The Testing of Language for Business Purposes (PowerPoint, 560kb)
• Handout (Word format , 45kb and pdf format, 96kb)

Detlef Hold, Manager, Training & Development, Disetronic Medical Systems AG (a Roche company), Switzerland then discussed the importance of business English training in an international company. The following materials from Detlef's talk are available for download:

• Special interest in a fool’s approach to drinking TEA with a fork without spoiling the dinner (PowerPoint, 14.7Mb)
• The same PowerPoint presentation but in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format (5.4Mb)

Jenny Dalalakis from ETS then gave us an overview of how her company‘s capabilities are mapped onto market needs: high tech solutions for large numbers of students as well as non-standard solutions to special needs. The following downloadable materials from her presentation are available:

• ETS Capabilities, Services and Products (PowerPoint, 1.2Mb)
• ETS Capabilities, Services and Products Handout (Word format, 60kb and pdf format, 215kb)
• Mapping TOEFL, TSE, TWE, and TOEIC on the Common European Framework: Executive Summary (pdf format, 212kb)
• The TOEIC Can-Do Guide: Linking TOEIC Scores to Activities Performed Using English (pdf format, 155kb)
• The Measure of Success in the Global Marketplace: Designing a language profile (Word format, 47kb and pdf format, 116kb)

   

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