ELSA’s co-founders – language-testing consultants Sandy Bhangal, Stephen Carey, Karen Ottewell and Mir Rahman – are hailing the formation of the physique as filling a “essential hole within the sector by offering neutral, expert-led insights on the standard and integrity of English language exams used worldwide”.
They mentioned that the necessity for “unbiased oversight” over the ELT sector “has by no means been better” as the necessity for dependable language exams for college admissions, immigration and employment grows.
“Our mission is easy: to assist establishments, educators, and policymakers globally make knowledgeable, evidence-based selections about language testing,” mentioned Ottewell.
“Till now, there was no unbiased authority centered solely on the requirements and equity of English language assessments. When deciding on which English language exams to just accept, establishments have an obligation of care – to their very own admissions requirements, however particularly to the worldwide candidates they’re looking for to draw. ELSA is right here to vary that.”
When deciding on which English language exams to just accept, establishments have an obligation of care – to their very own admissions requirements, however particularly to the worldwide candidates they’re looking for to draw
Karen Ottewell, ELSA
ELSA will supply session and advisory providers to establishments on how you can choose and implement English language exams, unbiased check critiques and language evaluation literacy (LAL) coaching packages for educators, directors and policymakers.
Its 4 co-founders have a mixed 100+ years of expertise in utilized linguistic and language evaluation. The physique hopes to develop into “the go-to authority for goal and clear insights in an usually opaque advert commercially pushed panorama”.
ELSA’s formation comes towards a backdrop of main change for language testing within the UK, because the Residence Workplace seems to be to fee a single government-backed check.
Most lately, the federal government launched a fifth request for data from the sector as a part of the continued tender, this time exploring digital testing as the first mode of supply.
