December 2024
Our article “Validating an integrated reading-into-writing scale with trained university students” by Claudia Harsch, Valeriia Koval, Voula Kanistra, and Ximena Delgado-Osori has been selected by the editors of the journal Assessing Writing from Volume 62 as noteworthy and likely to be of high interest to the community. The article is freely available here until 31st March 2025.
October 2024
The keynote speech by Prof. Claudia Harsch from the 20th EALTA 2024 conference in Belfast was uploaded on YouTube: Keynote EALTA Claudia Harsch
Enjoy!
July 2024
Our language assessment team attended and presented at the 45th Language Testing Research Colloquium in Innsbruck.
October 2023
L@B Graduation: PhD Paraskvi Voula Kanistra
We are very happy to share great news: On the 11th of October, our team member Paraskvi Voula Kanistra successfully defended her PhD thesis. The thesis was supervised by Prof. Claudia Harsch at the University of Bremen.
Congratulations, Voula – we are very proud of you
May 2023
Kleine Fächer im Porträt: Sprachlehr- und -lernforschung
Claudia Harsch was invited to write a portrait of the research area “Research into Language Learning and Language Teaching”. You can read the interesting article here.
April 2023
Writing Retreat in the Harz
In April, our writing retreat took place in a small village in Harz. Besides writing on the PhD theses, we had fruitful input and discussion sessions on important topics that are of great benefit to our research. We also took the opportunity of a (more or less) sunny afternoon to explore the surrounding woods.
February/March 2023
Visting professor at Universität Innsbruck
From February to March, Prof. Dr. Claudia Harsch is a visiting professor at the Language Testing Research Group at Universität Innsbruck, Austria. Here is their website: www.uibk.at/dis/ltrgi
January 2023
Presidency International Language Testing Association
In January, Prof. Dr. Claudia Harsch started her service as president of the International Language Testing Association (ILTA). ILTA is an international group of language testing and assessment scholars and practitioners whose dedication and work are respected both within and outside the profession, and who together define what it means to be a language tester. Here is their webpage: www.iltaonline.com
Congratulation to Claudia!
April 2022
Henning Vahlenkamp received an Impulse grant for his doctoral thesis by the Central Research Development Fund (CRDF), University Bremen
Writing Retreat in Norderney
In the beginning of April, our yearly writing retreat took place in person on the lovely island of Norderney. Due to Covid, only a small group joined the retreat to work on papers, PhD projects, proposals etc. To relax from work, we went for windy walks on the beach and enjoyed the beautiful sunsets.
June 2021
Valeria Koval received an Impulse grant for her doctoral thesis by the Central Research Development Fund (CRDF), University Bremen
March 2021
Writing Retreat “Online edition“
Dates: 18/19 March 2021, 9 am – 5 pm
https://www.enago.com/academy/important-tips-for-writing-an-effective-conference-abstract/
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/01/27/how-to-write-a-killer-conference-abstract/
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html: write a concise summary of the key points of your research. Your abstract should contain at least your research topic, research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusions. You may also include possible implications of your research and future work you see connected with your findings. Your abstract should typically be no more than 250 words.
https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/writing-an-abstract-for-your-research-paper/
https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/abstract/
December 2020
Research in times of Covid
Research in times of Covid – our research group got input on “rating scales for integrated text products” today from our colleague Santi Lestari (PhD student at Lancaster). It was lovely to have participants in our colloquium from different locations (Lancaster, London, Frankfurt, Bremen), and we enjoyed a rich variety of cultures (Colombian, German north middle n south, Greek, Russian, Ukrainian).
September 2019
International Collaboration: Visit from Cuba
At the end of August, a delegation of guest researchers from Cuba visited us for two weeks to continue working on their project “Developing a Certification System for English and Developing Language Assessment Literacy”. They also held four interesting presentations on language teaching in Cuban universities and entered into an exchange with some teachers and coordinators of the Languages Centre.
We were happy to have you here!
April 2019
L@B Graduation: PhD viva Sibylle Seyferth
We are very happy to share great news: On the 3rd of April, our team member Sibylle Seyferth successfully defended her PhD thesis on „Mündliche Leistungsmessung im Fremdsprachenunterricht. Entwicklung eines Beurteilungsrasters für Sprechkompetenzen im Französischunterricht zum Ende der gymnasialen Sekundarstufe I in Bremen“. The thesis was supervised by Prof. Andreas Grünewald and Prof. Claudia Harsch at the University of Bremen.
Congratulations, Sibylle – we are very proud of you!
ILTA newsletter: Introducing the PhD project of L@B member Voula Kanistra
Voula Kanistra’s Phd project on „Exploring the feasibility of using the Item-Descriptor (ID) matching method to establish the beginning of a B2 level test“ (supervised by Prof. Claudia Harsch) is introduced in the GRADUATE STUDENT CORNER rubric of the recent ILTA newsletter.
Congratulations, Voula!
Presidency: With regards to the new president of the LAALTA
On the 1st of April, our colleague and former guest researcher, Salomé Villa Larenas, started her service as the first President of the Latin American Association for Language Testing and Assessment (LAALTA), a new non-profit organization, which seeks to promote best practices in language assessment and testing in educational and professional contexts in Latin America.
Congratulation to Salomé and LAALTA!