LTF 2020
2020 was the 40th anniversary year for LTF. Owing to restrictions on travel caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, LTF 2020 was an online event on the afternoon of Friday 27th November. This was hosted by members of the UKALTA executive committee and volunteers from amongst the UKALTA membership.
Since the event was held online, it took a slightly different format running for only one afternoon rather than the full weekend. The advantage of this format is that recordings of the event are now fully accessible. Click on session links below for more details and access to the recordings.
Do also reminisce about LTFs past, with the LTF archive photo montage showing images from LTF 1999 – 2019 courtesy of Ardeshir Geranpayeh.
The opening plenary was on the topic The picture for languages in the UK in 2020: the view from UCML (University Council of Modern Languages), with speakers Professor Claire Gorrara and Dr James Illingworth.
This was followed by a panel discussion to explore some of the issues language testing associations face as a result of the global pandemic and explore where we might go from herewith invited representatives from our ‘sister’ associations in the field.
Postgraduate presentations comprised 3-minute, 3-slide presentations of research from Masters and PhD students, including recently completed PhDs.
The PGR award (sponsored by Text Inspector) was presented to Dr Franz Holzknecht for his talk “Double play in listening assessment”.
To mark the 40th anniversary year of LTF, four speakers were invited to look back over the four decades of the language testing forums in a series of short video interviews: ‘In conversation with…’
- Professor Liz Hamp-Lyons (1980s)
- Dr Nick Saville (1990s)
- Professor Anthony Green (2000s)
- Professor Tineke Brunfaut (2010s)
And finally, although the social element was significantly cut down by the online format, participants took part in a “language testing across the years” quiz, expertly hosted by outgoing secretary, Dr John Pill.
