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Abstract:

Autonomous learning means that students should have a ‘capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making, and independent action’ (Little, 1991). It is a capacity taken for granted with PhD students applying for a scholarship in a global context. Moreover, in an academic environment, this capacity needs to be displayed in English. As an entry ticket to this world, candidates have to provide valid certificates proving their level of English. However, do these certificates also cover their autonomy (in English) in working, studying, networking at their host universities? In the process of project design and implementation, stakeholder expectations need to be regularly consulted. Since 2004, Flanders (Belgium) and Cuba have cooperated in capacity building projects for research in human and natural sciences, engineering and technology in higher education, granting joint PhDs to Cuban students (http://www.vliruos.be), with the use of English as the lingua franca. This certification requirement has so far been an internal issue with many pitfalls and frustrations on both sides, as criteria were debatable and requirements of the Flemish host universities differing. In 2013, we started a transversal project at Universidad de Oriente (Santiago de Cuba) to find out how local tests may cross- fertilize with standardized international tests, and hopefully lead to the launch of an official language testing center by 2018, when the project ends. Recent political evolutions in Cuba have made this undertaking all the more adamant as the local situation now presses for more robust test validity and for assessment literacy from all stakeholders. As emphasized by different speakers at the recent Language Testing Literacy Symposium at Lancaster University (2016), this endeavor should include not only the testers and language instructors, but also the test users and university administrators. Following Morris and Baddache’s (2012) five-step approach to stakeholder engagement, this poster outlines the perspectives of different stakeholders at the Universidad de Oriente with respect to the assessment and certification of English language proficiency. Building on the stakeholder mapping exercise in Van Maele, Rodríguez González, Díaz Moreno, van Splunder and Baten (2015), in which we identified the most important stakeholder groups, we will now focus on the perspectives of the internal stakeholder groups, notably the language instructors, project leaders, PhD students, and university leadership on the Cuban side as well as the project leaders on the Flemish side. We will define the various engagement strategies and how to prepare for them, evaluate prior and on-going engagement actions, and report on the impact of the language assessment literacy trainings that have taken place.