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 It
is with great pleasure that I welcome all
presenters and participants to the first symposium
of the newly-formed English Language Teaching
Centre or ELTC. ELTC is to be our premier
institution for the training of English Language
professionals at the regional and international
levels. I would also like to take this opportunity
to commend ELTC for organizing this inaugural
symposium which addresses an issue of increasing
significance in language education today.
Assessment is an integral component of teaching
and learning. Research has indicated that
effective formative assessment is a key factor
in raising achievement. The introduction of
the New Primary and Secondary Curriculum in
1983 and 1985 signaled an emphasis on formative
assessment across the curriculum. However,
over the years, the growing competition for
entry into institutions of higher learning
and a job market that privileges paper qualifications
have led to an unwarranted emphasis on examination-oriented
teaching and learning.
The Ministry is concerned about this trend
and has invested considerable effort and resources
to develop a more balanced approach towards
assessment. It would be irresponsible to ignore
the assessment of learning, but it would be
unprincipled if we ignored the basis of education,
that is to enable every child to learn, and
to continue to do so throughout life.
I hope the sharing of ideas and experiences
across all sectors of the education fraternity
here will enable us to identify alternative
assessment strategies that might help bring
learning into focus in assessment or at least
redress the current imbalance between assessment
of learning and assessment for learning. With
this I wish you all a rewarding experience
at this symposium.
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It is my pleasure to welcome all speakers
and participants to the English Language Teaching
Centre's inaugural symposium on "Assessment
for Language Learning". I would also
like to take this opportunity to congratulate
ELTC for organizing this symposium. It is
extremely courageous of ELTC to take on this
task given that it is only about 10 months
old and has only minimal infrastructure in
place. This is, however, not the first time
that ELTC has so boldly undertaken tasks of
such magnitude.
The symposium's theme "Assessment for
Language Learning" is apt and is in line
with our current focus on student-centered
learning. Tests and examinations have traditionally
been the bane of students. Teachers, parents,
administrators and society have frequently
used test and examination results as a criterion
of achievement. The focus has always been
on assessment of learning. This has led to
an overly strong focus on examinations, resulting
in stressed and burnt-out students, teachers
and parents. This symposium, I hope, will
be able to examine the critical issues involved
in assessment of learning and assessment for
learning, especially, in the context of the
teaching and learning of English.
While we are all concerned with ways of ensuring
the validity and reliability of tests and
examinations, we must also not lose sight
of how we can maximize the positive impact
of tests on student learning. I hope this
symposium will be able to come up with fruitful
ideas on how we can make tests less threatening
and more learning-focused. With this I wish
all participants and ELTC every success in
this inaugural symposium.
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 Welcome
to the English Language Teaching Centre's
inaugural symposium on Assessment for Language
Learning.
Assessment is integral to the education
process and much effort and time is invested
by sponsors of education in ensuring that
it is fair and equitable, that it is reliable
and valid, and that the results of assessment
can be reliably used for the purposes for
which assessment is carried out.
Individuals and agencies entrusted with
assessing learning have a heavy responsibility
and are acutely aware of the far-reaching
consequences of their work. They are also
exposed to public scrutiny and this may
result in some measure of conservatism in
their assessment practices. However, to
be fair, it is evident that concerted efforts
are being made by the testing and assessment
fraternity to explore alternative strategies
and testing modes that are intended to ensure
that such assessment practices have a positive
effect on both teaching and learning.
The exploration of such alternative assessment
procedures and processes is an ongoing endeavour
and a forum such as this helps to raise
issues and throws into focus, challenges
and concerns that can be discussed in a
objective and professional manner. Such
discussion should showcase studies and experiences,
germinate ideas and point towards possibilities
and potential directions for further work
and research.
I hope the colloquia and the workshops will
serve to stimulate soul-searching and reflection
and also point towards future directions
in assessment at both the micro and macro
levels of Malaysian education in general
and English language teaching and learning
in particular.
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