Page 28 - ELG2207 Jul Issue 481

FEATURES .

A new approach from Cambridge
Cambridge

Francesca Woodward, Global Managing Director for English at Cambridge University
Press & Assessment, explains why it was the right time to merge two Cambridge brands

the Cambridge approach has on people’s lives.
In recent projects, we’ve chronicled many of
these stories from all over the world and they
are truly inspiring.
One that struck a chord with me was that of
a social scientist and dancer from Brazil called
Sabrina. Sabrina said that learning English at
age 15 transformed her life and took her to
places she never imagined would be possible.
Learning experiences have to meet the
real-life needs of learners wherever they are,
and we achieve this by developing accessible
products and services that are backed up by
world-class research. Our dedicated teams
that specialise in language learning, assessment
and educational research develop insights that
make this happen.
We work on numerous projects that
showcase the unique capabilities of
Cambridge. For example, over the past 20
years we’ve developed the Cambridge English
Corpus, our multi-billion-word evolving
collection of spoken and written English. We
analyse this unparalleled collection of data,
gleaning insights from it to ensure that the
language taught in our teaching materials
and assessments are guaranteed to be natural,
Francesca Woodward, Cambridge University Press & Assessment’s Global Managing relevant and up to date.
Director for English We’ve also developed the Cambridge
English Scale, which was built on years of
n August of 2021, Cambridge Assessment learning and assessment products, as well research, and is used to consistently report
and Cambridge University Press came as a brand promise, which is: ‘Where your results for our qualifications and tests. And, of
together to become a single organisation world grows.’ We also introduced a new look course, we have many products that make the
Iknown as Cambridge University Press & and feel for our English products, which is most of our integrated approach to learning
Assessment. By merging these teams, we starting to appear in exam centres, schools and and assessment, such as our preparation
get the best of both and can offer even institutions across the world. We’re making material that is used all over the world. One
better solutions for English learners and great strides in updating all major customer particularly exciting development is our on-
teachers worldwide. interfaces, including our websites, social media the-go preparation tool, Test&Train, which
Although August was a huge milestone communities and other support materials, and has been developed by our assessment and
for us, it wasn’t completely new territory. I this will continue over the next year or so. learning experts to help students get exam
was previously Chief Executive of Cambridge ready using their mobiles, tablets and laptops.
Assessment English and we had always worked Why a new approach?
very closely with our colleagues at Cambridge We launched this new approach to our English A welcome change
University Press. In fact, documents from our brand for several reasons. First, following the Our brand launch has been well received by our
archives reveal we’ve been collaborating as far merger, we felt it was the right time to bring customers around the world, which gives me
back as 1858. We shared a long history with everything about English together under one great optimism. As a global language, English
the same goal: to help people learn and prove identity. But the rationale behind this decision unlocks a lifetime of experiences and, because
their skills to the world. As a department of goes much deeper. The world has changed so language is at the heart of being human, we
Cambridge University, we play an important much over the past two years, and it was clear help people connect and communicate.
role in helping to deliver its mission of we needed an identity that helped us look This gives us a huge responsibility and we’re
contributing to society through the pursuit of to the future and focus on how we can best commited to supporting our learners and
education, learning and research at the highest serve the needs of our learners and teachers teachers around the world. When you consider
international level of excellence. As part of this worldwide. We wanted an identity that showed the opportunity associated with learning a
we want to give even more people the chance off our rich expertise in language learning and language, it makes our promise of ‘Where
to learn English and achieve their goals, and assessment, because we pride ourselves on your world grows’ so much more powerful and
we can do this better as an integrated English being able to develop learning experiences impactful. This makes me especially proud.
learning and assessment organisation. that could only come from Cambridge.
We regularly hear hundreds of inspiring
A single brand learning experiences from teachers and
In April of this year, we launched a forward- students, and each and every one is unique, but
thinking approach to our brand for English one thing that remains consistant is the impact
28 July 2022