Assessing Heritage Language Learners

Abstract

In the last few decades, research on how to best teach and assess heritage language (HL) learners has grown as enrollment of these students in language classes has increased. Recent work on the assessment of HL learners has been conducted in the context of higher education in the USA and has focused almost exclusively on placement testing. This chapter first reviews the various characterizations and characteristics of the heritage language population. The next section discusses approaches to placement testing of HL learners and reviews specific studies that have been conducted related to these different approaches. The approaches include the use of self‐placements and demographic questionnaires, standardized foreign language exams, and locally developed placement tests. Finally, the chapter concludes by discussing challenges in the placement testing of HL learners and future directions for research.

Selected poster presentations from the American Association of Applied Linguistics conference 2021

“…Overall, responses indicate that while HL educators are currently using a variety of assessments and believe that assessment is a valuable part of teaching, they have limited resources. These findings are in line with other research findings indicating a need for heritage-specific professional development, including that which is focused on HL assessment (Ilieva & Clark-Gareca, 2016; Llosa, 2013; Magaña, 2015). HL educators need targeted professional development resources about assessment to support them in creating and adapting tools for their contexts.…”