CIIL: Importance of language testing stressed

He was speaking at a training cum workshop on Applied Linguistics, Testing and Evaluation for the Guest Lecturers and Resource Persons of Seven Regional Language CEntres and the academics of NTS-India, here.

Prof Sachdev discussed the nuances of language education in general and the importance of testing in particular. He reiterated that language education is one of the great concerns of the country, and the teachers of language should know all the aspects of language and its application in cultural contexts. Later, he also clarified the doubts of the participants.

Dr M Balakumar, Head NTS-I briefed about the objectives and activities of NTS and requested the participating scholars  to make use of this rare opportunity as many eminent scholars from the institute and from other reputed institutions are going to deliver lectures on various aspects of language education, applied linguistics, testing and evaluation.

Development of human resources in the field of testing and evaluation is one of the main objectives of NTS-India. To achieve this objective, it has arranged a series of training cum workshops on testing evaluation and preparation of model question items to the teachers of school and college through the RFUs of NTS spread across the length and breadth of the country in the past.

It is also planning to conduct similar programmes across the country. In this series, for the first time the NTS has planned to train those academics engaged in teaching and research of Indian Languages in the RLCs of CIIL for the purpose of enlarging its activities in all the Indian languages.    

Around 80 participants involved in the teaching & research activities of Indian Languages from the following institutions of CIIL viz., Southern Indian Regional Language Centre (Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu), Mysore, Karnataka, Northern Regional Language Centre (Kashmiri, Punjabi and Urdu), Patiala, Punjab, Western Regional Language Centre (Gujarati, Marathi and Sindhi), Pune, Maharashtra, Eastern Regional Language Centre (Bengali and Oriya), Bhubaneswar, Orissa, North Eastern Regional Language Centre (Assamese, Manipuri and Nepali), Guwahati, Assam, Urdu Teaching and Research Centre, Solan, Himachal Pradesh and  Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and NTS-I are participating in this.   
The senior academics of linguistics, literature, education, testing & evaluation available in CIIL, RLCs and from other academic institutions will imparting training in the following course contents viz., Nature of language, elements of language, skills of language, teaching of languages as L1 & L2, objectives of education, testing & evaluation, testing vocabulary, grammar, etc., and the NTS academics will also train them in the preparation of model question items, the item types to be followed and the parameter of question items to be covered.

Prof Rajesh Sachdeva, The Director of CIIL is the advisor of the programme.

Dr V Ilangovan, Dr Biresh Kumar, Dr M Yesudass and Dr R Senkuttuvan Ancy Thomas and Kavitha  are the other members of the organising committee.