Event

Standardized Language Testing in Japan

Saturday, July 21st, 2012, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Speaker: Edward Sarich (Shizuoka University)

Standardized language testing is ubiquitous in Japan. Inexpensive and easily mass distributed, their use has been encouraged at every level of the education system. Over the past thirty years, external testing agencies have been increasingly relied upon to make standardized tests for use as benchmarks in the education system and in the private sector. However, while great trust has been placed in these agencies that create these tests, many of them operate with very little supervision. The presentation will review the practices of some of the commonly used external testing agencies in Japan and discuss how greater accountability from these agencies might not only improve test validity, but make them more useful for score users and test takers.

Edward Sarich has been working in the field of language education for more than 15 years. He taught junior and senior high school for 7 years in Hamamatsu Japan. While completing an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Birmingham in 2010, Edward began working as a language instructor at Shizuoka University. He is interested in all issues concerning language pedagogy in Japan, particularly regarding language planning policy, standardized testing, evaluation, and communicative language teaching.

Organization: Hamamatsu Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Hamamatsu JALT)

Cost: JALT Members: free
Non-members: 1,000 yen

Venue: Zaza City Palette, 5th Floor

Location: Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

Contact Hamamatsu JALT

Dan Frost

Work phone: 053-460-7956
Mobile phone: 090-9891-4844