Send us your news!

 
 


This is the fourth issue of the ILTA online newsletter.  We hope you will send us comments on what you like and don’t like about it and, specifically, what new features you would like to include or existing ones you think could be excluded. It is very important that the newsletter reflects the wishes and interests of the ILTA membership and at the moment we are just giving it our best guesses!  As we said in our last issue,
this is YOUR Newsletter and YOUR organization.  It is, and will be, only as strong as YOU make it. 

We are again delighted to have received PhD abstracts from new language testing scholars and welcome them warmly into the profession.  Please continue to encourage your students and colleagues to send in their abstracts – Ed.Ds are also most welcome.  It is a great way for new members of our community to let others know they are out there and to help people with similar interests make contact. 

A new feature in this issue is the publication of abstracts of Work in Progress. At the moment these are all abstracts of PhD work in progress but we would like to publish brief descriptions of all work in progress so please consider telling us about your current research projects.  It’s valuable for junior colleagues to learn about the work of more experienced colleagues, perhaps with bigger projects, so that they can see the career trajectory that lies ahead for them.

Another new category is People.  Here our idea is to ‘humanize’ the newsletter and offer up-to-date information on who is doing what, where (and with whom)! We are not, of course, attempting to compete with Hello magazine but do feel that we could share more interesting news about language testing colleagues, so please tell us your (publishable) gossip!!!  In this fourth issue, Kudos continues to honour language testing colleagues who have received awards from other organizations.

Some of the categories from the previous issues have become regular features. ILTA news reports on important news from ILTA’s Executive Board and there is further news from language Testing Organizations and Universities around the world.  Research Reports, New Publications and Conferences detail exactly that.  Don’t wait to send us information for the Calendar of Events as it is updated as soon as we receive news of upcoming conferences.

Unfortunately we have not received any responses to either of the LATE dialogues or any suggestions for new topics. We are keen to know your thoughts on retaining this feature. If you missed any of the first three issues, or want to revisit the items, check out the Archives.

Enjoy – and keep the news coming!

Vivien and Liz

Note from Vivien: Sadly, this is Liz’s Farewell issue.  Many thanks are due for her hard work in getting the online newsletter up and running - we will miss her.  The silver lining is that we now have an opportunity for members to join a new editorial team to help shape the future of the newsletter – please think about volunteering.