The Assessment Advisory Board Meeting is an annual meeting which takes place between the Assessment Research Group of the English and Exams Department of the British Council, and the Assessment Advisory Board (AAB) which includes external board members from various academic institutions worldwide.
The purpose of the meeting is for the Board to carry out an annual revision and evaluation of any research completed by the Assessment Research Group.
Professor Yan JIN is a professor of Applied Linguistics at the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She has been involved in the design and development of the College English Test since 1991 and served as Director of the National College English Testing Committee of China since 2004.
She has been involved in many research projects related to test design and development and has published many articles in academic journals. She is currently on the editorial board of international journals such as Language Testing, Classroom Discourse, and Chinese journals such as Foreign Languages in China, Foreign Language World, Foreign Language Education in China, Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies, etc. She is also editor-in-chief of Language Testing in Asia.
Claudia Harsch is a professor at the University of Bremen, specialising in language learning, teaching and assessment. She has worked in Germany and in the UK, and is active in teacher training worldwide. Her research interests focus on areas such as language assessment, language and migration, the development of language assessment literacy, and the implementation of the CEFR. Claudia is the current president of the International Language Testing Association.
Geoff Stead is the Chief Product Officer for MyTutor, the UK’s leading online platform for one-to-one learning. He was previously the Chief Product Officer at Babbel, Europe's leading language app. As CPO, he shaped and led the digital ecosystem of language learning experiences, building the tools that make a difference for millions of language learners.
His teams have won multiple industry awards for their use of emerging learning technologies.
Luke Harding is Professor in Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University (UK). His work has been published in journals such as Applied Linguistics, Assessing Writing, Language Assessment Quarterly, Language Teaching and Language Testing. He is also the author of Accent and Listening Assessment (Peter Lang). Luke is a joint recipient of the ILTA Best Article Award and the eAssessment Best Research Award. He is currently co-editor of the journal Language Testing.
Dr Guoxing Yu is Professor of Language Assessment at University of Bristol. Currently he is the co-editor of two book series: 英语教师专业素养丛书（外语教学与研究出版社), and Research and Practice in Language Assessment (Palgrave Macmillan). He has been an Executive Editor of Assessment in Education since 2010, and serves on the editorial board of Assessing Writing, Language Assessment Quarterly, Language Testing, and Language Testing in Asia.
The British Council is indebted to the late Professor Cyril J. Weir who chaired the assessment Advisory Board for five years. His insight, contribution and support have been invaluable and will be remembered through our ongoing work with the Board.