Standards in English Language Teaching and Assessment

Plenary Speaker:
Mary Lou McCloskey

Standards for English Language Teaching? What, Why, How?

Performance standards in Education are of keen interest worldwide. I will provide an introduction to and background on the standards movement, and specifically on the use of performance standards for learners in language teaching. I will define what performance standards are, describe why they are important reforming and improving education, and offer examples of ways that such standards can be used in secondary EFL programs. I will also offer a few caveats about the mis-use and mis-application of standards in education.

Bio

Mary Lou McCloskey, 2002-2003 TESOL President, is Director of Teacher Education and Curriculum Development for Educo in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and an adjunct professor at Georgia State University. She received her PhD in educational leadership from Georgia State University, following her Master's Degree in early childhood education at Syracuse University and her BS in Philosophy at Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York. Active as a staff development specialist, consultant, writer, curriculum developer, and researcher in the area of English for school-age speakers of other languages, she has worked with teachers, teacher educators, and departments and ministries of education on five continents and in 31 of the United States. She was awarded the 1999 Moss Chair of Excellence in English at the University of Memphis, the TESOL D. Scott Enright Service Award, and the Georgia TESOL Professional Service Award. She is co-author of two programs for learners of English to be published in 2003: Visions (Heinle) and On Our Way to English (Rigby), has also authored Voices in Literature; Making Connections; and Teaching Language, Literature and Culture along with many chapters and articles. Dr. McCloskey served on the TESOL Task Force to develop TESOL/NCTE Teacher Standards and the Task Force on AIDS and Health Education. She worked with Egyptian Educators to develop EFL Pre-Service Teacher Standards for that country. She considers her most important credential, however, her teaching experience with students from many cultural and linguistic backgrounds in levels from preschool through university.

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Photo by Tony Quirke