2025 Asia Talks with Oxford - Assessing Young Learners

Welcome to Asia Talks with Oxford! These live online events run throughout the year and are open to anyone interested in English Language Teaching and learning more about Oxford and our products.

In the modern language classroom, it is widely expected that a variety of assessment techniques be used to get an accurate understanding of a student’s language proficiency and learning progress. At this online event, we will investigate different approaches to assessing young learners focusing on the approaches of Assessment of Learning (AoL) and Assessment for Learning (AfL). Practical examples of each will be demonstrated and explored using Everybody Up 3rd edition, Buzz, and Beehive series from Oxford University Press.

We will include the latest research* on Assessment in ELT from Oxford University Press and how this valuable tool can continue to support both teaching practices and student learning outcomes.

* Position paper – The Impact of Assessment on Teaching and Learning: Creating positive washback: https://oxelt.gl/4nxxiFB

** The webinar will take place in the East Asia timezone (10 am CST~), but we welcome teachers from around the globe to sign up and join us live or watch the recording in your own time.
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(10:00-10:50 CST) - Assessment of Learning in Primary Language Classrooms
by Joon Lee

Assessment plays a vital role in English Language Teaching (ELT) by providing insight into student progress, informing instructional decisions, and ensuring learning objectives are met.

This session will focus on ‘Assessment of Learning’ (AoL) for the primary language classroom and introduce practical strategies that support educators in effectively evaluating student learning. We will examine how to align assessment tools and resources provided by primary course books (from Oxford University Press) with learning objectives to make AoL more purposeful and manageable. We hope to encourage AoL as an effective tool for educators to use to help enhance learner progress.
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(11:00-11:50 CST) - Assessment for Learning as a Tool to Develop Independent Learners
by Matthew Blacker

Assessment for Learning (also known as formative assessment) is increasingly being recognised as a vital tool to help guide students' learning and provide them with the tools to succeed in learning and speaking English.

In this session, we'll explore how we can use the AfL methodology embedded into Oxford University Press (OUP) course books to help our students figure out i) what they already know in English, ii) what they need to learn to succeed, and iii) strategies they can use to do this. We'll also look at how teachers can guide students using these same principles, including how to deliver effective feedback. We will take practical examples from OUP's course books for primary learners, Everybody Up 3rd edition and Beehive, and explore some challenges and solutions of using AfL in Asia.
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(11:50-12:00 CST) - Joint Q&A Session
by Joon Lee & Matthew Blacker

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- Everybody Up 3rd Edition
For information about this course, visit: https://elt.oup.com/feature/asia/everybody-up

- Buzz
For information about this course, visit: https://oup.pagetiger.com/buzz-digital-brochure/v1; Beehive: https://oup.pagetiger.com/Beehive-American-brochure/1