Standards Writing

Facilitator:
Penny McKay

Standards Writing Workshop

The workshop is designed to raise participants' awareness of the processes and issues in the writing of language standards. We will focus on the writing of language performance standards for second language learners that is, standards describing the pathways of language learning of students who are learning English in a 'mainstream' or content-based learning situation. However, the principles and procedures will apply to the writing of language performance standards generally. Standards writing is a long, consultative and iterative process. In this workshop we will address some of the many considerations in standards writing. What is the purpose of the standards? Who are the learners and what language learning pathways do they take? Are there established frameworks that need to be followed? How will young learners be catered for? Who are the stakeholders and how will they be involved? These and other considerations underpin the development of standards. After a discussion of these considerations, we will work on beginning the development of one level of ability in a set of performance standards, using samples of work to guide the definition of the descriptors in the level.

Bio

Penny McKay has a special interest in the teaching and assessment of English as a Second Language (ESL) and foreign language learners of all ages. She has published widely, and has coordinated three large ESL/bilingual projects in Australia, including a standards project developing the NLLIA ESL Bandscales. She has recently won a large research grant to validate the ESL Bandscales. Penny is a past President of the national Australian Council of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Associations (ACTA).

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Photo by Tony Quirke