Dr Tania Horák
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Tania has worked at UCLan since August 2010 before which she worked in both the UK and abroad teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) and teacher training in this subject. She maintains an active involvement in teacher development, currently working on the undergraduate and postgraduate TESOL programmes at UCLan. She also supervises PhD students working in the field of teacher development and language assessment. Her own PhD was in the field of washback.
Tania is the Course Leader for MA TESOL with Applied Linguistics and she teaches modules in Language Analysis and Testing & Assessment on this course, as well as teaching on our other postgraduate TESOL programme: MA TESOL. She is also a Teaching Practice tutor at undergraduate level, for the BA TESOL programme. Tania is also a member of the English language exam team, producing proficiency exams for our students requiring proof of their level of ability.
Before joining UCLan, Tania taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in the Czech Republic for four years at the University of West Bohemia, where she first became involved in teacher development. At various other points she also taught for short periods in Spain, Germany and Hong Kong. After completing an MA, she worked in Bangladesh for four years. In Bangladesh, after teaching at the British Council, she went on to work as a teacher trainer on a DFID-funded project which aimed to improve secondary level English teaching in the state sector (the ELTIP project). Subsequently, she worked in Lithuania as the EFL and Education Projects Manager for the British Council, before returning to the UK to begin her PhD studies while also working as a Research Associate on the longitudinal TOEFL IBT Impact Study with Dr, Dianne Wall at Lancaster University. She also worked on other short-term research projects with Prof. Charles Alderson at Lancaster University, including a Trinity Spoken Corpus project, a Metalinguistic Knowledge Project and an Aviation English Project.
- PhD Applied Linguistics, Lancaster University, 2013
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2012
- MA Applied Linguistics for English Language Teaching, Lancaster University, 1996
- RSA CertTEFLA, International House, 1991
- BA (Hons) European Studies, Hull University, 1987
- Social impact of testing and assessment
- Development of assessment criteria
- Teaching and supporting academic writing
- External Examiner: Liverpool University
- Peer Reviewer of articles for Journal of Second Language Teaching and Research and Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice
- Benchmarking Panel Member: CRELLA, University of Bedford
Tania’s Phd research investigated the washback of the exams introduced on the introduction of the Skills for Life strategy in the UK, and the social impact of assessment remains one of her main research interests. As a member of the English language exam team at UCLan, Tania has been heavily involved in on-going test development and has researched how writing criteria may be improved for increased reliability and general effectiveness, as well as potential for washback and washforward. Building on previous teaching experiences in pre-sessional academic preparation programmes, teaching academic support modules at Lancaster university and also working in the students’ study support unit at UCLan (known as WISER), Tania is also interested in the teaching and development of academic skills, especially academic writing. She has recently worked on a study exploring the range of ways different types of university support staff view academic writing and how this may influence the support they offer.
Use the links below to view their profiles:
- Mind The Gap - Unpacking IELTS writing band descriptors to inform university admission decisions – lead: Dr. Tania Horak
- Writing Criteria Project - Updating the TELL exam marking criteria - a back to basics approach, UCLan
- Lexical Profiling Project - Ensuring the language level of texts in the TELL exam, UCLan
- TOEFL IBT Impact Study - lead: Dr Dianne Wall, Lancaster University
- Trinity Spoken Corpus project - Establishing a corpus of oral exam performances for further research - lead: Prof. Charles Alderson, Lancaster University
- Metalinguistic Knowledge Project - lead: Prof. Charles Alderson, Lancaster University
- Aviation English Project - lead: Prof. Charles Alderson, Lancaster University
- International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Joint Funded Research Program, £19,927.69, 2020
- Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC)2003
- Language Testing Forum 2004, Cambridge
- European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (EALTA) Conference, 2005
- LTRC 2005
- EALTA Conference, 2013
- EALTA 2016 \InnoConf,2018
- XV CercleS International Conference, 2018\ALDinHE/ BALEAP joint conference,2018
Telephone:+44 (0)1772 893055
Email: Email:Dr Tania Horák
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