Evolution of the world’s biggest conference dedicated to language testing and assessment

Over the past decade, New Directions East Asia (NDEA) has been expanded to include a very successful Latin American conference held biennially and is planning to add conferences in South Asia, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa over the coming years.

In addition to the flagship conferences, the British Council holds short New Directions Series events around the world which feature expert speakers from the British Council and its partners. Unlike the main conference events in East Asia and Latin America, which tend to focus on regional and global issues, these smaller events are more targeted to a specific country and often offer a limited focus, for example, a Series event in Rome in 2023 focused primarily on assessing young leaders in the Italian education system.

In October 2023, NDEA came back to Vietnam in Hanoi and attracted a range of participants, including teachers, academics, senior government officials and policy-makers. For New Directions 2023, the British Council had over 200 abstract submissions, and more than 400 conference registrations from 30 different countries, together with 76 presenters across 49 different sessions. This has helped drive up the quality of research work in the New Directions regions and ensure that policy makers and influencers alike gain significantly from active participation. On the other hand, the conference also gives teachers a unique opportunity to engage with local and international experts in teaching, learning and assessment (TLA), while providing them with access to ministers and key administrators to learn of current or upcoming education reform plans.

While this is recognised as a key strength of the New Directions events, perhaps their most important feature is that these conferences and events make it possible for the British Council to convene key high-level stakeholders to engage with assessment and education reform challenges and share solutions. Donna McGowan, Director of the British Council in Vietnam, and Prof. Barry O’Sullivan, Senior Adviser of English Language Assessment of the British Council, have regularly seen these participants surprised to find that issues they had considered local to their country were shared by others in their region. This has led to genuinely open discussions and opportunities to develop working relationships with UK institutions, as well as the British Council and others.

Donna McGowan - Director of the British Council in Vietnam delivered the opening speech at the conference

Future of English

In Vietnam, MOET continues to review its approaches to assessment and testing in light of the 2018 General Education Curriculum’s emphasis on competence-based teaching, learning and assessment, and the promotion of more formative forms of assessment. With NFLP’s 2025 remit being reviewed beyond to 2030, with a vision to 2045, discussions around English language teaching and learning and the role of assessment are very likely to be front and centre as Vietnam reflects on its policies and plans for future innovations and reform.

Speakers during the panel discussion in the conference

Based on the British Council’s experiences over the past decade, it seems clear that, as the New Directions programme expands to more and more regions, the opportunities it affords local, regional and UK stakeholders will also expand. This can only be good for language education globally, as the British Council continues to shape the future of English in a multilingual world through innovation and international partnerships.