TALE Project
Project framework: Erasmus+/ Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
Action Type: Strategic Partnerships for higher education
Duration: September 2016- September 2018
Partners: University of Cyprus, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (HiOA), Hellenic Open University, University of Heidelberg, University of Debrecen, University of Bedfordshire
SubPartner: WIDE Services(Greece)
Website: http://taleproject.eu/
Project Description
The (TALE) Project aims at creating an efficient and sustainable training infrastructure for English Language Teachers (ELTs) who wish to develop their skills with regard to language assessment. To this end, emphasis is placed on how one can create high-quality assessment materials and adopt appropriate assessment procedures in his or her teaching context.
The TALE Project offers 8 separate Courses on language assessment. Besides ELTs, the TALE Courses can be of benefit to other language teachers as well. The main target audiences of the project are:
- pre-service and in-service English Language Teachers
- English language learners
- educational policymakers
- experts and researchers in Language Testing and Assessment
- pre-service and in-service foreign language teachers (other than English)
In each of the participating countries, two multiplier events will take place aiming to disseminate the results of the needs analysis and the online training course, respectively. In these events mainly pre-service and in-service ELTs will participate and also persons from the last three categories of stakeholders mentioned above. Near the completion of the project, a final conference will be organized in order to raise awareness on the main intellectual outputs of the project: the needs analysis, the online course and the handbook.
WIDE Services is a significant subcontractor responsible for Moodle setup, hosting, support, course design, consulting etc. for the eLearning platform.
General Project Objective
The TALE Project aims to reconfigure language assessment to promote the productive involvement of teachers, trainers and students in order to improve language learning. It gives importance to the inclusion of trainee teachers as constituent components of an effective collaborative environment, as well as the students themselves in assessing their own learning. This will result in greater autonomy for ELTs who will be allowed to design their own route to language assessment destinations, make decisions about their study, establish their own assessment focus and aims and thus become active and responsible learners themselves. Moreover, it is expected that the Project will positively influence the students’ own approach to learning. Project management, evaluation, quality assurance, dissemination, exploitation and sustainability will run concurrently with the below two important phases:
- Needs analysis which will be achieved through a comprehensive literature review on current thinking in language assessment literacy and an extensive consultation with ELTs to ensure that the new course will meet their needs.
Development, piloting and feedback of the online training materials and services to evaluate the effectiveness of the training course. Eight separate Courses have been developed in the framework of the TALE Project (The ABCs of Assessment, Assessing reading skills, Assessing writing skills, Assessing listening skills, Assessing speaking skills, Providing feedback, Alternatives in assessment, Test impact). Once the materials and the evaluation process is complete, the Handbook of Language Teaching and Assessment will be drafted, refined, piloted and finally published to enable and promote wider implementation of the project beyond the partner organizations. The handbook will contain successful LTA activities and tasks, as well as, samples of student performances derived from the implementation of the pilot training course. It will also include the most successful training materials from the implementation of the course compiled by the consortium partners for pre- and in-service ELTs to help language teachers develop and enhance their language assessment literacy.
