Professor Charles Alderson

Emeritus Professor

Profile

After two years (2010-2012) as Principal Investigator of an ESRC (Economic and Social Research) research project into “Diagnosing Reading Proficiency in a Second or Foreign Language”, I retired in September 2012 and became an Emeritus Professor within the Department. I was fortunate enough to be awarded a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship which is enabling me to continue my research, research-related travel and publications until December 2014.

Courses I have taught in the past include:

Undergraduate courses:

  • Language Teaching Methodology (LING271)
  • Interpreting Language in Use (LING261)
  • Introduction to General Linguistics (LING151)
  • Language Acquisition (LING235)

Masters level:

  • Background to Applied Linguistics for Language Teaching
  • Evaluating Language Education
  • Issues in Language Testing
  • Language Test Construction and Evaluation
  • Language Testing Techniques
  • Language Test Research and Development
  • Professional Issues in Language Teaching
  • Research Issues in Applied Linguistics
  • Research Design and Experimentation in Language Teaching
  • Research Issues in Applied Linguistics
  • Reading in a Foreign Language
  • Statistics

PhD level:

  • Introduction to Quantitative Methods
  • Critical Approaches to Social Data for Applied Linguistics
  • Language Testing

Research into Aviation English Testing. Lancaster University Small Grant Award. £6,997
02/02/2009 → 04/12/2009
Other

Grid Maintenance Project. Dutch Ministry of Education. €20,000
01/01/2007 → 17/12/2007
Other

The validation of a test of English for air traffic controllers. €32,000
03/04/2006 → 03/12/2007
Other

Continuation Project for the Dutch CEFR Construct. Dutch Ministry of Education. €32,000
03/01/2005 → 16/12/2005
Other

European Network for Language Testing and Assessment. Project funded by the European Commission to create a network of individual language testers in Europe. Grant €158,000
04/04/2003 → 01/04/2005
Other

The Dutch CEF Construct Project
31/01/2003 → 31/12/2007
Other

A project to work out a theoretical construct underlying the construction of an item bank based on the Common European Framework. Dutch Ministry of Education. €70,000
07/01/2003 → 17/12/2004
Other

One-year Leverhulme Research Fellowship. £20,000
03/01/2003 → 19/12/2003
Other

The Interculture Project
01/09/1998 → 01/11/2002
Other

DIALANG: European Commission-funded project, through Socrates Lingua Action D to create a battery of on-line diagnostic tests in 14 European languages. Grant Phase 1 (1996-1999 €1,649,998); Grant Phase 2 (1999-2002) €1,022,000
02/02/1996 → 06/12/2002
Other

ESRC study of metalinguistic knowledge and proficiency in French
01/01/1996 → 01/01/2000
Other

Metalinguistic knowledge, language aptitude and language proficiency of English university undergraduates of French. ESRC, £30,000
07/01/1994 → 01/12/1995
Other

Sri Lankan O Level Evaluation project. British Overseas Development Administration.
10/04/1989 → 04/12/1992
Other

An Evaluation of the Sri Lankan National Certificate in English. Overseas Development Administration, UK
04/04/1986 → 04/12/1987
Other

Revision of the ELTS test to lead to the new IELTS. British Council, University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate and the Australian International Development Programme. £220,000
03/03/1986 → 03/10/1989
Other

"The Testing of Migrant Health Professionals" Council on Overseas Professional Qualifications, Australia
10/01/1986 → 19/12/1986
Other

  • LTRG - Language Testing Research Group