Description

The International Language Testing Association (ILTA) has announced that it has selected Professor J Charles Alderson to received its very prestigious 'Lifetime Achievement Award'. The award is being presented in recognition of Charles' many contributions to the field of language testing and achievement, in the areas of theory development, examination design and evaluation, teaching and PhD supervision, publishing, journal editing, management and leadership. Full details below.

2008 UCLES/ILTA Lifetime Achievement Award

On behalf of the review committee for the UCLES/ILTA Lifetime Achievement Award (comprised of Jim Purpura, Nick Saville, Carolyn Turner and myself) it is a great pleasure to announce that after carefully considering the several highly meritorious nominations received from the field, Professor J. Charles Alderson has been selected to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented at the 30th ILTA/LTRC meeting which will be held in Hangzhou, China in June 2008.

Charles Alderson has been a major force in the advancement of language testing for the past 30 years, particularly in Europe. A student of Alan Davies, a former winner of this award, he has been a professor at the University of Lancaster for the past 28 years. During that period he has supervised Ph.D. students, such as Pauline Rea-Dickins, Caroline Clapham, Gary Buck, Glenn Fulcher, who have gone on to make strong contributions themselves to the field of language testing. His research with Dianne Wall on washback remains seminal for this topic. His work with the Hungarian Examination Reform Project played a major role in the revision of that country's language testing system, and he has assisted other countries in revising their language testing system. The Cambridge Language Assessment series, which he co-edited with Lyle Bachman, has provided many valuable publications that have advanced the field. He played a major role in the creation of the European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (EALTA). His many publications have dealt with leading issues of the day, such as the cloze test, ESP testing, the testing of reading, diagnostic testing, computer-based testing, the IELTS, and DIALANG. He served for four years as co-editor of the journal Language Testing with Lyle Bachman, another former recipient of this award. Charles is a much sought-after presenter at national and international conferences due to the quality of his presentations and his insights on important emerging issues in language testing.

Because of his many contributions over the years, the committee is pleased to announce that Professor J Charles Alderson has been selected to receive the 2008 UCLES/ILTA Lifetime Achievement Award.

Charles W Stansfield Chair, 2008 UCLES/ILTA Lifetime Achievement Award Committee