As part of the tenth anniversary of IELTS in 1999, the IELTS
partners - British Council, IELTS Australia and Cambridge English
Language Assessment - established an annual award of £1,000 for the
Master's-level dissertation or thesis in English which makes the
most significant contribution to the field of language testing. In
2010, the award was renamed after Caroline Clapham in recognition
of her contributions to IELTS in particular and language
testing in general.
Each year the IELTS Research Committee, comprising members of the
three partner organisations, reviews submissions for the award and
shortlists potential winners. Submissions must be for a
dissertation/thesis written in partial or total fulfilment of the
requirements for a Master's degree or its equivalent, and must be
supported by a letter from the applicant's academic supervisor. The
work should be language testing focused but need not be
IELTS-related.
Submissions are reviewed and evaluated by the IELTS Research
Committee according to a set timetable and established criteria.
The Committee reserves the right not to make an award at its
sole discretion, and its decision is final.
The award is normally presented in public at a major language
testing event during the following year, e.g. at the annual
Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC), and the IELTS partners
sponsor the award winner's attendance at this event for this
purpose.
Previous award winners
| 2012 |
Veronika Timpe - ‘Strategic decoding of
sociopragmatic utterances: A think-aloud validation study’ |
Lancaster University, UK |
| 2012 (Commended) |
Anne-France Pinget - ‘Native speakers’
perceptions of fluency and accent in L2 speech’ |
Utrecht University, Netherlands |
| 2011 |
Kellie Frost - 'Investigating the validity of
an integrated listening-speaking task: A discourse-based
analysis of test takers’ oral performances' |
The University of Melbourne, Australia |
|
2010
|
Thom Kiddle - 'The effect of
mode of response on a semi-direct test of oral proficiency'
|
Lancaster University, UK
|
|
2010 (commended)
|
Gerard Seinhorst - 'Are three
options better than four? Investigating the effections of reducing
the number of options per item on the quality of a multiple-choice
reading test'
|
Lancaster University, UK
|
|
2009
|
Ruslan Suvorov – ‘Context
visuals in L2 listening tests: the effectiveness of photographs and
video vs. audio only format’
|
Iowa State University of Science and
Technology, USA
|
|
2008
|
Susan Clarke – ‘Investigating
interlocutor input and candidate response on the IELTS speaking
test: A systematic Functional Linguistics Approach’
|
Macquarie University, Australia
|
|
2008 (commended)
|
Kerry Ryan – ‘Assessing the
OET: The nurse’s perspective'
|
University of Melbourne, Australia
|
|
2007
|
Talia Isaacs – ‘Towards
defining a valid assessment criterion of pronunciation proficiency
in non-native English speaking graduate students’
|
McGill University, Canada
|
|
2006
|
Youn-Hee Kim – ‘An
investigation into variability of tasks and teacher-judges in
second language oral performance assessment’ (L2 oral
performance)
|
McGill University, Canada
|
|
2005
|
Fumiyo Nakatsuhara – ‘An
investigation into Conversational styles in paired speaking tests’
(CAE)
|
University of Essex, UK
|
|
2004
|
No award made
|
|
2003
|
Eunice Eunhee Jang – ‘In
search of folk fairness in language testing' (TOEFL)
|
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
USA
|
|
2002
|
No award made
|
|
2001
|
Sang-Keun Shin – ‘An
exploratory study of the construct validity of timed essay tests’
(L2 learners)
|
University of California at Los Angeles,
USA
|
|
2000
|
Sally O’Hagan – ‘Assessment
of student essays: Methods of marking work written by students from
non-English speaking backgrounds’ (ESL)
|
University of Melbourne, Australia
|
|
2000
|
Lindsay Brooks – ‘Adult ESL
attitudes towards performance-based assessment’ (ESL)
|
OISE/University of Toronto, Canada
|
Submission and evaluation
procedures
Dissertations will only be considered eligible if they were
submitted and approved by your university in 2012. Dissertations
completed in 2013 will not be considered eligible for the 2013
award but may be submitted the following year.
Submissions should be for dissertations written in partial or total
fulfilment of the requirements for a Masters degree or its
equivalent. The dissertation should be language testing focused but
need not be IELTS-related.
To apply, the following should be sent to the address below: (1)
your contact details, (2) your dissertation abstract, Introduction,
Review, and Method chapters, and (3) a reference sent directly by
your supervisor. Electronic submissions are preferred.
Dr Gad S Lim
Research and Validation Unit
Cambridge English Language Assessment
1 Hills Road
Cambridge
CB1 2EU
United Kingdom
Lim.G@cambridgeesol.org
The IELTS Research Committee will review the submissions and
shortlist potential award winners. For all shortlisted submissions
a full copy of the dissertation will be requested and a further
reference may be sought.
Shortlisted dissertations will be reviewed and evaluated by the
IELTS Research Committee according to the following criteria:
• Rationale for the research
• Contextualisation within the literature
• Feasibility of outcomes
• Design of research question(s)
• Choice and use of methodology
• Interpretation and conclusions
• Quality of presentation
• Use of references
• Contribution to the field
• Potential for future publication
The Committee's decision is final.
Timetable
The following timetable will apply in 2013:
| 30 June |
Deadline for submission of dissertation extracts and
supervisor's reference to the Cambridge English Language
Assessment |
| 31 August |
Deadline for submission of full copies of shortlisted
dissertations (and further references if required) |
| October / November |
Meeting of IELTS Research Committee |
| November / December |
Announcement of Award |
