Programmation 2023-2024

Conférencier 1                                                                       

Graham Stanley

English Programmes Lead

British Council (Americas)

ChatGPT : What it Means for Assessment

ChatGPT, the latest chatbot from OpenAI, has triggered concerns in all areas of education.  This tool allows anyone to create impressive essays on any subject in a matter of seconds.  Is this the end of assessment as we know it?  Or is it the beginning of a new knowledge and information age?  What does it mean for English Language Teaching and Learning?  Will teachers be forced to re-evaluate methods of assessment?  What alternative methods of assessment can teachers adopt in the light of this new tool?  

This session will explore the capabilities of ChatGPT and discuss why it is problematic when it comes to standardised writing assessment and traditional homework.  It will also examine how it might be used if the technology is embraced by teachers.  Five alternative methods of assessing students will be suggested:  oral presentations, group projects, personalised self-reflection, peer assessment, and hands-on performance-based assessment.  What gains and what losses are implied with this new software?  For teachers, ChatGPT can be used as a time-saving aid to create gap-fill exercises, course outlines, lesson plans, and much more.  For learners, there’s the possibility of generating answers to essays on any subjects in seconds, of providing study notes, etc.  Already some educational establishments have banned the tool and other software has appeared that analyses texts to report on the likelihood that they were written by a machine.  But, with the technology improving rapidly, how effective will this be?

The emergence of machine learning tools such as ChatGPT also point to a future workplace where use of this type of Artificial Intelligence will be expected, as routine as using a calculator or spreadsheet to increase productivity.  What happens then remains to be seen and lies in the medium to long-term future, but teachers will have to adopt to the software and adopt new ways of working in the short-term.

  • Le 1 novembre 2023
  • 12h30 à 13h30
  • En ligne 
  • Conférence en anglais
  • Inscription gratuite, mais obligatoire :  (LIBCAL Link – et lien Zoom pour Libcal https://uqam.zoom.us/j/88187891005)

Confériencière 2

Dina Tsagari

Department of Primary and Secondary Teacher Education

Oslo Metropolitan University, OsloMet

Oslo, Norway

One of the recent tendencies in the field of education nowadays is that student populations are becoming increasingly diverse, both culturally and linguistically. Also, the numbers of children diagnosed with SEN such as Specific Learning Differences, e.g., dyslexia, specific language impairment, attention deficits, those with other difficulties, e.g., visual, hearing or physical impairments, and children with immigrant backgrounds are steadily growing. This situation, combined with greater awareness of individual human rights and principles of inclusive education, has led to an increased demand for appropriate accommodations. This is of particular concern to second or foreign language teachers (Kormos and Smith, 2012; Nijakowska, 2010) and test providers (Taylor, 2012; Tsagari and Spanoudis, 2013) who are very often faced with the challenge of having to offer special arrangements (accommodations) to diverse learners.

The presentation will showcase effective strategies within teacher education that combat discrimination and exclusion in language assessment. It will highlight solutions that foster enhanced inclusivity by prioritizing accessibility through the universal design of language tests and other assessment methods. These efforts are intended to benefit a wide range of learners, including those with special needs and disabilities. The presentation draws ideas from the SCALED resources (Supporting Content and Language Learning Across Diversity) a project which was developed for both initial and continuous professional development (CPD) of language instructors (https://scaled.uw.edu.pl/). The presentation also offers resources and digital suggestions on how to further develop professional competences in the field.

Dina Tsagari, PhD, dina.tsagari@oslomet.no is Professor, Department of Primary and Secondary Teacher Education, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway . She has also worked for the University of Cyprus, Greek Open University and Polytechnic University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include language testing and assessment, materials design and evaluation, differentiated instruction, multilingualism, distance education, learning difficulties and inclusive education. She is the editor and author of numerous books, journal papers, book chapters, project reports etc. She coordinates research groups, e.g., CBLA SIG – EALTA, EnA OsloMet and is involved in EU-funded and other research projects (e.g. TEFF, TREL, KIDS4ALL, SCALED, NORHED, KriT, DINGLE, TRIBES, ENRICH, TALE, DysTEFL, etc).

Atelier organisé par le groupe de recherche – Mesure et évaluation en langue seconde ou étrangère (MELSE)