NetIAS supports project to reveal the Anglophone bias in language-based assessments

The Selection Committee for the Constructive Advanced Thinking (CAT) programme 2021 at the Network of European Institutes for Advanced Study (NetIAS) has decided to give support to a project led by Branco Weiss Fellow Damián Blasi.

The project is titled: “Challenges for the development of fair language-based assessments of health, education, behavior, and beyond”. It addresses the complex and multifaceted issue of bias in the development of language-based assessments (LanBAs) towards a handful of large and commercially central languages – predominantly English. This results in speakers and signers of minority languages having at their disposal more expensive, less efficient, and potentially biased LanBAs.

The project aims at revealing the Anglophone bias in LanBAs, at engaging policy-makers, experts on language technologies, and other non-academic agents with the purpose of building a clear course of action to transfer findings into practical recommendations, and at raising awareness within the general audience through diverse media strategies.

The CAT programme supports small interdisciplinary groups of promising early-career scholars and researchers led by a Principle Investigator seeking to work on projects that tackle crucial societal issues and emerging challenges. The selected groups embark on a series of short stays at the participating IAS to work on their projects, engage in expertise and knowledge exchange and benefit from stimulating discussions and debates.

Read the news on the NetIAS website