Professor of Applied Linguistics at the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Dr Jin’s research focuses on the development and validation of large-scale and high-stakes language assessments. She is currently Chair of the National College English Testing Committee in China and Vice President of the Asian Association for Language Assessment. She is also co-editor-in-chief of the Springer open-access journal Language Testing in Asia and is on the editorial board of international and local journals, including Language Testing, Classroom Discourse, The Journal of Asia TEFL, and the International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching.
Professor of Language and Literacy Education, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia
Professor Lo Bianco wrote Australia’s National Policy on Languages in 1987, the first multilingual national language policy in an English speaking country, and was Chief Executive of the National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia until 2002. His language policy advice was used at the Sydney, Athens and London Olympic Games, and by many countries including South Africa, Hawaii, Italy, and by Pacific Island countries. Among his many roles, since 2011, he has been senior research advisor for LUCIDE, a European Commission project on Languages in Urban Communities - Integration and Diversity for Europe, and in 2012, became Research Director of the UNICEF Language and Peace Building Initiative in Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand. In 2014, he was appointed academic advisor to the National Research Centre for Foreign Language Education at Beijing Foreign Studies University, and is also Immediate Past President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the first educator elected to this role. He is also the author of 130 publications.
Professor of Applied Linguistics, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, USA
Dr Bailey works in the TESOL-TFL Program at MIIS (where she has taught since 1981), and also teaches in the EdD and MA Programs at Anaheim University. She is President of both The International Research Foundation for English Language Education, and American Association for Applied Linguistics, and has received a number of awards for her services to TESOL, including the James E Alatis Award and the Heinle Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr Bailey’s research interests include teacher development and supervision, language assessment and classroom research, and she is the editor, co-editor, author or co-author of 15 books.
Senior policy officer, Directorate General for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, European Commission, Brussels
Kristina Cunningham is the senior policy officer in charge of multilingualism at the European Commission. She previously worked as a sales and marketing manager in the private sector. She holds a Masters degree in Business Administration and Modern Languages from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and a Certificate of Political Studies from the Institute of Political Sciences in Paris, France. She is involved in the development of strategies for making multicultural and multilingual classrooms more efficient and socially more inclusive, and to support teachers in their evolving roles.
Dr Helen Yannakoudakis, Senior Research Associate, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK
Helen is a Senior Research Associate at the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, working on Automated Language Teaching and Assessment. She is also a fellow at Girton college, a committee member of Women@CL, and a Research & Development specialist at iLexIR. She holds a PhD in Natural Language and Information Processing from the University of Cambridge, during which she also worked on the English Profile Programme in collaboration with Cambridge English Language Assessment; an MPhil in Computer Speech, Text and Internet Technology; and a BSc in Computer Science. Her research interests lie at the intersection of Computational Linguistics, Machine Learning and Visualisation, and particularly revolve around the areas of automated language teaching and assessment, self-assessment and tutoring systems, error detection and correction, and second language acquisition.
Dr Ardeshir Geranpayeh, Head of Automated Assessment & Learning, Cambridge English Language Assessment, UK
Ardeshir Geranpayeh is the Head of Automated Assessment & Learning at Cambridge English Language Assessment, a department of the University of Cambridge. Ardeshir holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh on the comparability of language proficiency testing. He has 27 years’ experience of test validation and has contributed to the design, development, revision and evaluation of several internationally recognised language proficiency tests. Ardeshir has published extensively on language proficiency testing and cheating detection.