LTF 2019
LTF 2019 was hosted by the Department of Applied Linguistics and English Language Training Services (ELTS) at Swansea University from 22-24 November 2019.
The principal theme of LTF 2019 was Connecting research, policy and practice in language assessment with three related sub-themes:
- Assessing UK languages other than English
- Research-informed assessment practice and practice-informed assessment research
- Impact of language assessment on educational and societal contexts
The conference was formally opened on the Friday evening with the Cyril J. Weir lecture, with keynote speaker Dr Emyr Davies speaking on the topic: Golwg ar Asesu’r Gymraeg / Perspectives on the Assessment of Welsh

A pre-conference workshop led by Dawn Knight, Steve Morris and Lucy Davis gave participants the opportunity to think about Corpus Linguistics for Researchers and Practitioners. It was targeted towards those wishing to use corpus techniques effectively and efficiently for research and practitioner purposes.
Participants were given the opportunity to explore English language and Welsh language corpora, to consider the wide range of applications of corpus research, and to develop skills for identifying and using corpora for specific purposes via a series of workshop sessions throughout the day on Friday 22nd November.
LTF 2019 Presentations
A Knowledge-based Vocabulary List (KVL): A List for Testing and Pedagogy: Norbert Schmitt, Barry O’Sullivan, Laurence Anthony, Karen Dunn, Benjamin Kremmel
Researching Lexical Profiles (LP) in learner written English: Nathaniel Owen, Prithvi Shrestha
Understanding plurilingual students’ home and community language learning in school in Wales: Elin Arfon
Performance-based decision trees vs traditional marking criteria: an exploratory study: Elena Gandini, Tania Horák
Language assessment literacy development in a Haitian professional learning community (PLC): Beverly Baker
Developing computer-based speaking tasks to assess the ‘mediation’ construct: Jing Xu, Annabelle Pinnington
EFL test-takers’ audience awareness in an Email writing task: Ying Chen
The impact of test preparation and repeated test taking on the predictive validity of IELTS as a standardised measure of English proficiency: Ruolin Hu, Danijela Trenkic
Enabling interaction: A study of examiner behaviour in an interactive speaking test: Richard Harris
Building a Spoken Counterpart to the Cambridge Learner Corpus: Mark Brenchley
Darogan Hygyrchedd Eitemau wrth Asesu’r Gymraeg | Predicting Item Difficulty in the Assessment of Welsh: Emyr Davies, Joanna Maziarz, Lillie Halton, Alun Evans
Applying ‘limits of agreement’ to validation of automated scoring of language performance: Edmund Jones, Jing Xu
Reflections and future directions: Tony Clark, Nahal Khabbazbashi

The student presentation award (sponsored by Cambridge Assessment English) was awarded to Richard Harris for his talk on “Enabling interaction: A study of examiner behaviour in an interactive speaking test”.

Beverly Baker received the British Council ARG international achievement award for her work with teachers in Haiti to build a professional community of practice.
The winner of the poster presentation prize (sponsored by Text Inspector) was Lucy Davis of Swansea ELTS for her presentation addressing the question “What are EAP raters looking for in a written task?”
LTF 2019 Poster presentations
An exploratory study of the factors influencing the feedback experience of the international students in the UK: Ashwaq Althowibi
Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Assessment Literacy in the English as a Medium of Instruction Programme: Napol Artmungkhun
What are EAP raters looking for in a written task?: Lucy Davies
The validity of using grammar checking tools in writing coursework assignments: Lara Duke
Classroom-based Formative Assessment to Monitor Students’ Progress in Academic Writing and Reading Skills: Saeede Ide Haghi
Automated writing evaluation for diagnostic assessment of Chinese EFL writing: Sha Liu, Jing Xu, Guoxing Yu
Validation of a computerised picture-based receptive vocabulary test: Chloe Mills
Ymagweddau at greu rhestri geiriau, heb gorpws, ar gyfer asesu ac addysgu | Non-corpus approaches to creating wordlists for assessment and teaching: Steve Morris, Tess Fitzpatrick, Paul Meara
Investigating the validity of a productive vocabulary test: the G_Lex: Anisur Rahman & Tess Fitzpatrick
