Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The British Council for the first time presented a series of conferences "New Directions Series" in Uzbekistan. The conference, organized in partnership with the Agency for the Promotion of the Study of Foreign Languages, brought together Uzbek teachers, experts and heads of ministries and departments of Uzbekistan to study the latest methods and trends in testing to assess knowledge of the English language.

More than 1,500 people took part in the online conference from 15 to 17 November. The New Directions conference series launched by the British Council in 2013 has already been held ten times, eight in East Asia and two in Latin America. Uzbekistan became the first pilot country in Central Asia to host the conference in a new format and taking into account the peculiarities of local education.

The main agenda of the conference was a reflection of the significant reforms that have taken place in teaching English in the country in recent years and the ways of their further successful implementation.

One of the main topics of the conference was the issue of the importance of seeing the education system as a unified and integrated system. The main elements of the education system are curriculum, material development, teacher training, teaching practice and knowledge assessment. These elements have traditionally been viewed as separate and independent from each other. However, they should be viewed as interdependent parts of the system. This comprehensive learning system is the backbone of a successful education system. If one of these elements is somehow disconnected from the others, then the system is at risk and policy initiatives and reforms may fail.

Another topic that was discussed during the conference was the importance of raising the level of language assessment literacy among teachers. Teachers who are literate in language assessment use tests and other forms of assessment to improve teaching, while teachers without such training in assessment use tests only as a means of obtaining grades.

During the conference, Uzbek educators were able to hear from a wide range of international experts about how the British Council and partners such as Cambridge Assessments are innovating in teaching and assessing English around the world. International experts included Professor Barry O’Sullivan, Head of Research and Development Assessment at the British Council, and Professor Anthony Greene, Lead Researcher in Language Assessment at the University of Bedfordshire, Dr. education.

The experts shared examples of how countries such as Taiwan and Korea went through educational reforms that Uzbekistan is now going through and the methods that led them to success, and representatives of the leading universities of Uzbekistan shared their results. Dialogue between various regional and international experts has allowed for the development of assessment solutions that meet local needs and meet global standards.

During the discussion at the conference, international experts and Uzbek teachers, and heads of ministries and departments came to three main conclusions:

First, to ensure high standards of teaching and assessment of the English language in the education system of Uzbekistan, closer coordination is needed between all levels of the educational sector.

Second, the curriculum, teaching methods, teaching materials and the assessment system must be consistent.

Finally, teachers should be provided with additional opportunities to develop literacy in the area of language assessment so that they can accurately determine whether their students are acquiring useful language skills and how they can be improved.

As a result of the three-day conference, the participants came to a common strategic vision and were able to clearly formulate a position in the field of assessing language proficiency and language learning, which will be applied in developing long-term goals for teaching foreign languages in all schools and universities in Uzbekistan.