Penny McKay (1948 – 2009)

As a teacher, consultant, researcher, keynote speaker and professional activist, Penny McKay was a leader in language education in Australia and internationally. Working collaboratively with educators and researchers in schools, she pioneered an approach to assessing learners' development in English as an additional language.

Penny was committed to four fundamental principles.

First, assessment frameworks should be tied to empirical, classroom-based observations of English language learners of different ages and backgrounds.

Second, those frameworks should respect and respond to classroom teachers' understandings of and insights into their learners.

Third, assessment frameworks must be informed by theory as it continually develops.

Finally, assessment frameworks must be designed to support learners' language development and to inform teachers in their teaching.

Penny died prematurely in 2009 from ovarian cancer. She is greatly mourned by Australian and overseas language educators.

The Penny McKay Memorial Award honours Penny’s contribution to research and development in second/additional language education. As a teacher, consultant, researcher, keynote speaker and professional activist, Penny McKay was a leader in language education in Australia and internationally. Working collaboratively with educators and researchers in schools, she pioneered an approach to assessing learners' development in English as an additional language.

The Award is jointly offered by the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia (ALAA), the Australian Council of TESOL Associations (ACTA) and the Association for Language Testing and Assessment of Australia and New Zealand (ALTAANZ). Finances related to the Award are administered by ALAA.

The Award is for an outstanding doctoral thesis which benefits the teaching and learning of second/additional languages in Australian schools and pre-schools, including Indigenous languages, community languages, foreign languages, Standard Australian English as an additional language or variety, and/or English as a foreign language.

The Award consists of $500, a certificate and free conference registration at a 2023 conference of one of the sponsoring organizations.  The winner will be offered a slot to present a paper on an aspect of their research at that conference.

The winner will be formally announced at the AGM of each Association and be presented at their preferred conference of one of the sponsoring organizations. The winner’s name and a 300 word summary of their thesis will be published in each Association’s journal (ALAA – The Australian Review of Applied Linguistics; ACTA - TESOL in Context; ALTAANZ - Language Assessment Matters). 

The closing date for 2022 applications is 1 November 2022.

The Award was established and is maintained from donations from individuals, professional associations and other institutions in Australia and overseas, and from the sale of Penny’s extensive professional library. These funds are invested securely as agreed by ALAA, ACTA and ALTAANZ according to the normal procedures governing such funds.

Your help is needed to maintain this Award which carries forward Penny’s lifelong commitment to language education that is grounded in both research and the insights of practising teachers.

To donate to the maintenance of this Award, please go to Make a Donation below for further details.

Donating to the Penny McKay Memorial Award

The Award was established and is maintained from donations from individuals, professional associations and other institutions in Australia and overseas.

To donate to the maintenance of this Award, or for further details, please email Prof Chris Davison,

The closing date for 2022 applications is 1 November 2022. Please send all submissions to the chair of the selection panel, Prof Chris Davison, by the deadline.  Further information and general details on the application process is found below and the application form is attached.

The Award was established and is maintained from donations from individuals, professional associations and other institutions in Australia and overseas. To donate to the maintenance of this Award, or for further details, please email Prof Chris Davison,

THE PENNY MCKAY MEMORIAL AWARD 2022

Overview and General Information

Eligibility for the Award

The Award is awarded annually for a doctoral thesis submitted at an Australian university in the preceding year, i.e.2021, and subsequently deemed to be outstanding. To be eligible for consideration, the thesis should be focused directly on aspects of Australian pre-school or school-based second/additional language education, such as language development, curriculum, teaching or assessment. The applicant must be a verified member of ALAA or their State/Territory ACTA affiliate or ALTAANZ in the year of their application.

Applying for the Award

Electronic copies of the applications for the 2022 Award are due by midnight on 1 November 2022 to the Chair of the Selection Panel, Prof Chris Davison,

Applications should consist of:

1. a correctly completed Application Form 
2. the thesis abstract

• the Table of Contents from the thesis

1. one chapter from the thesis that the applicant believes best demonstrates the outstanding qualities of the overall thesis
2. copies of all examiners’ reports
3. a statement of support from one of the applicant’s supervisors; this statement should complement (not duplicate) the examiners’ reports, may comment on anything in the examiners’ reports, and may elaborate on relevant matters not covered in examiners’ reports

• if the thesis research was not carried out in an Australian school or pre-school setting and/or with (pre)school-age second language learners, a statement (no more than 100 words) explaining how the thesis findings are directly relevant to Australian school settings and school-age learners
• a summary of the thesis outlining the background, methodology, findings and contributions of the study (max. 300 words); this summary will be used to describe the award-winning thesis on the ALAA, ALTAANZ and ACTA websites and in their respective journals

Applications must contain all of the above otherwise they will be excluded. Applicants will be advised of the outcome of their applications by early 2023.

Evaluation Procedures and Criteria

Procedures

Applications will be assessed by a panel of three, being the Presidents of ALAA, ACTA and ALTAANZ or a suitable representative as nominated by the President of each Association. The panel will have the option of co-opting a recognised academic expert in the area of second/additional language education. The Award may not be given in a particular year if the panel judges that none of the applications are at a suitable standard.

Evaluation Criteria

Each application (parts ii – viii above) will be judged holistically against the following criteria:

(i) the contribution of the thesis to knowledge about second/additional language learning among Australian (pre-/)school-aged learners

(ii) the innovation and originality of the approach taken by the thesis to its subject matter and/or methodology and/or presentation

(iii) the clarity of writing and presentation demonstrated by the thesis.

To view the report format used by the Panel, click here.

Further enquiries about the Award may be directed to the Panel Chair, Chris Davison,

Penny’s approach to teaching

All of us approach teaching in different ways. For me, teaching has been, from the beginning, an iterative activity – working with students, teachers and researchers to search for, try out and disseminate effective teaching practices. I’ve always sought to observe, ask questions, and find patterns in how English and other languages are learned and taught. My life as a language consultant and researcher has been a stimulating journey of workshops, drafts and feedback seminars with students and colleagues. My colleagues’ questions about what is happening and being trialled in their classrooms has been an invaluable contribution to my work. We have become successful as language educators by working collaboratively and sharing our knowledge and skills like this.

Penny McKay, 15th February 2009

A co-researcher describing Penny’s approach to classroom research (interview with Helen Moore, 30 January 1997):

Penny was wonderful. ... We’d get into the classroom and we’d say, ‘And then this should happen and this should happen’. But she’d keep asking us, ‘What does happen?’ ‘What is happening there?’ ‘What is development?’

To read more about Penny McKay:

Dooley, Karen and Moore, Helen. 'Penny Mckay 1948-2009: A Leader in English Language Education', TESOL in Context, Vol. 19 Issue 2 (Dec 2009) 50-66.

2014

In 2014, the first year of the Award, the Panel decided that they could not distinguish between two outstanding theses. Consequently, we congratulate:

Susan Creagh for her thesis "A Foucauldian and Quantitative Analysis of NAPLaN, the category 'Language Background Other Than English' and English as a Second Language Level" (presented at the University of Queensland).

and

Julia Rothwell for her thesis "Let's eat the captain! Thinking, feeling, doing: Intercultural language learning through process drama" (presented at the Queensland University of Technology).

The recipients received their awards at the 2014 ACTA International TESOL Conference in Melbourne on 1 October 2014, at the beginning of the Penny McKay Memorial Plenary Lecture, given by Professor Chris Davison.

2015

Jennifer Alford “Conceptualisations and enactment of Critical Literacy for senior high school EAL learners in Queensland, Australia: commitments, constraints and contradictions” (Queensland University of Technology).