SESSION 2C

Denise Flipo, RMIT Training
Implementing TBLA

Abstract
Last year at the UECA Assessment Symposium Conference we reported on our efforts to date in introducing TBLA (Task-based Language Assessment) at our centre, RMIT English Worldwide. At that time, we were at the initial stages of introducing TBLA. We had recently run a trial, and in our session we reflected on what we had learnt from the trial and changes we had made for eventual implementation. We have now been running TBLA for our intermediate level students for 11 months. Due to its success, we will soon be introducing it at pre-intermediate level. In the session we will begin with a brief rationale for making TBLA part of assessment for ELICOS students. We will then look at the practicalities of running TBLA and reasons why it has been embraced by both teachers and students at our centre. This will be followed by an outline of the feedback we have received from the stakeholders and how the feedback has helped us improve the quality of the test and test processes. This session will have value whether or not attendees were present at the 2018 TBLA session.

Bio(s)
Denise Flipo is an ELICOS teacher, a teacher trainer and an assessment developer. She has worked as an English teacher in Japan and the UAE, and has delivered short intensive teacher training courses in China. She has been involved with Aviation English teaching, as well as Aviation English teacher and rater training, in China, Oman and PNG. She has been an IELTS examiner since 2001, and has been an assessor for the RMIT English Language Test for Aviation (RELTA) and the OET. Her research interests are authentic assessment and reliability in item writing.