The ALTE International Conference is one of the largest multilingual events for the global language assessment community. This year’s theme was “Language Assessment for Multilingualism: promoting linguistic diversity and intercultural communication”. The conference participants included 350 linguists and specialists from over 30 countries and regions. Dr. Jessica Wu, Director of the R&D Program at the Language Training & Testing Center in Taipei was invited to talk on “Fairness and Quality” at the plenary session. This international conference was a valuable opportunity for SC-TOP to engage in dialogue with other language test designers and testers, and provided SC-TOP with a significant platform to raise the visibility of Taiwan’s TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language).

The Education Division in Paris arranged for Dr. Chen Po-Hsi to meet with key people involved in the teaching of Chinese in France to exchange views on the design of TOCFL and the challenges it presents. These included Joel Bellassen, Chief Inspector of Chinese Teaching for the French Ministry of Education; Professor Hsu Hua-li from University Paris-Est Marne La Vallee; Professor Arnaud Arslangul from INALCO (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales; the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations); and Mme Chen Ping-Wen, Dean of Institut de Formation Franco-Chinois, a key overseas Chinese school in Paris.

TOCFL was launched in France in 2006, and to date 206 people have sat for the tests; most of them are from non-Chinese speaking families. This year the Education Division launched an online TOCFL registration system, and SC-TOP and the Education Division are jointly exploring the possibility of introducing computerized TOCFL testing in 2015.

PLEASE NOTE: SOME DETAILS GIVEN IN THE ORIGINAL ENGLISH PASSAGE WERE FOUND TO BE INCORRECT WHEN I CHECKED ONLINE. They have been corrected in the passage above:
http://events.cambridgeenglish.org/alte-2014/

The 5th ALTE International Conference is one of the largest multilingual events for the global language assessment community. ALTE Paris 2014 provides an opportunity to hear influential voices, discuss key issues and meet colleagues from around the world. The two day event builds on the success of the 4th ALTE International Conference, held in 2011, by extending the debate into new and fascinating areas. Plenary speakers reflect both the diversity and scope of the event, and the increasingly important field of language assessment.

The conference will take place in Paris, from Thursday 10 - Friday 11 April, at the Maison Internationale, part of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. This distinctive venue provides an ideal meeting point for ALTE's increasingly international audience; Paris is also the home of CIEP (the Centre international d'études pédagogiques), co-organiser of the conference, and is always a popular destination given its accessibility, wide range of accommodation, and outstanding cultural attractions.

2. NUMBER OF COUNTRIES IS NOT ‘60’: From their Programme Page:

ALTE received a large number of high-quality submissions for the conference, and in order to include as many papers as possible the programme formatted has been changed:
•papers have been reduced from 45 minutes to 30 minutes
•Papers will be ‘doubled up’ by strand to create one hour sessions
•sessions have been organised by strand to allow delegates to attend multiple papers in a strand, across the two-days

The programme has great depth, diversity and reach with:
•108 paper presentations
•more than 120 speakers
•Over 30 countries and regions represented
•92 organisations represented
•18 papers presented in French, German and Spanish