1
2017 Communique
QALEN members are quality assurance and accreditation organisations focusing
on best practice in
English Language Teaching (ELT).
The fourth annual QALEN symposium was held in Auckland, New Zealand in November 2017 and brought
together representatives from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the USA.
The ELT environment is undergoing changes influenced by global events and digital advancements. The
various topics discussed over the two days included:
•
potential challenges for quality assurance in online/distance/ blended delivery;
•
the suitability of the vast array of qualifications available to prospective teachers;
•
quality and the student experience;
•
self-evaluation in quality assurance; and
•
commonalities of best practice indicators across the QALEN membership.
A key outcome of the symposium was ratification of the
2016 Statement on the Care of Minors Attending
Short-term Language Programmes.
A commitment was made to ongoing work on the following projects:
•
Benchmarking of suitable TESOL/TEFL qualifications across jurisdictions;
•
Guiding prospective teacher trainees, via
the QALEN website, on the suitability of qualifications to
ensure transportability in the global ELT environment;
•
Production of an information sheet profiling QALEN and the role of members in quality assurance
of ELT; and
•
Compilation of core self-evaluation questions to enable benchmarking
across QALEN members,
targeting best practice and continuous improvement.
The 2018 symposium will be hosted by Languages Canada and Orion Assessment Services in Toronto,
Canada on the 29
th
and 30
th
of October.
QALEN Symposium
Auckland, New Zealand
November 2017