Summer School in Language Testing

Host Institution: University of Lisbon
Coordinating Institution: University of Lisbon/University of Minho
Website: https://cehum.elach.uminho.pt/sslt_2025

Dates: 02-Sep-2025 - 05-Sep-2025
Location: University of Lisbon, Portugal

Minimum Education Level: n.a

Focus: SEMINAR 1. Avaliar a leitura: estratégias, estímulos e atividades*
Instructor: Paula Simões (IAVE; CAPLE)
Taught Portuguese.

SEMINAR 2. Psychometrics in Language Assessment
Instructor: Irene Cadime (CIEC, Universidade do Minho)
Requirements: Personal Computer
Introduction to language testing and assessment.
Fundamentals of psychometrics.
Item Response Theory (IRT) and language testing: statistical training on Rasch analysis.
Methods for assessing the reliability and validity in language assessment.

SEMINAR 3. Developing Digital Language Assessments with elements of AI
Instructor: Bert Wylin (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
Designing and implementing digital assessments.
Working with digital tools to assist the development process.
What is special about digital language assessment?
Introduction to how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help in the Assessment Development and Grading process.
Hands-on with practical use cases (bring your laptop!)

SEMINAR 4. Designing Language Assessments in Context
Instructor: Carolyn Westbrook (British Council)
The Comprehensive Learning System (O’Sullivan, 2020) and the Curriculum Design Process (Westbrook, 2019, 2025): integrating learning, teaching and assessment.
Aligning assessments to the CEFR.
Fundamental principles of language assessment: design, construction, and validation of language assessments.
Critical analysis of tests: analysing constructs, and evaluating tests using simple statistics; implications for learners.

Description:

The Summer School in Language Testing is designed to offer intensive training in applied linguistics studies, targeting language testing competencies.
This Summer School will consist of 4 seminar courses instructed by internationally and nationally prominent linguists and professionals. The main topics of training include: test and item design, test use and impact, e-assessment practices and psychometric methods for both educational and research purposes.
The program is tailored to provide educators, researchers, students and language practitioners with the essential theoretical and practical tools from the field.

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)
Portuguese (por)

Registration Open until 31-May-2025

Contact Person: Cristina Flores, Clara Setas
Email: [email protected]

Apply by Email: [email protected]
Apply on the web: https://cehum.elach.uminho.pt/sslt_2025#registration

Registration Instructions:
https://cehum.elach.uminho.pt/sslt_2025#registration