How are multilingual communities of practice being considered in language assessment? A language ecology approach

Arias, Angel; Schissel, Jamie L.

doi:10.1558/jmtp.21242

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Over the years, a number of articles focused on multilingual tests showing that the presence of their home languages on tests contributed significantly to a more positive feeling among the students. Arias and Schissel (2021) published a special issue devoted to the multilingual tests, which consisted of a number of articles that address various dimensions of multilingual assessment procedure utilizing 'more innovative and detrimental approaches with multilingualism in language assessment'. Schissel 2019Schissel , 2020Schissel, Leung, & Chalhoub-Deville, 2019;Schissel, Leung, Lopez-Gopar, & Davis, 2018 conducted a number of studies on testing students with bilingual tests showing that bilingual tests encouraged students to use both English and Spanish in completing writing tasks.…”

Section: Cases and Research Of Multilingual Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Language Testing, Multilingualism and Social Justice

Shohamy

2022

TESOL Quarterly

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The paper reports on trends in language testing taking place over the years and aim at critical perspectives of testing and promoting inclusion, equity and justice. It begins with critical theories by Messick, Foucault and Bourdieu, leading to critical language testing (CLT) which focused on consequences and uses of tests. Given the power of tests and their detrimental effects questions were raised regarding the impact of language tests on individuals and society. Based on theories of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics it was realized that bi‐multilingual students, especially immigrants in the first years of migration and beyond continue to use their first languages as resources for academic functioning, referring to it as their ‘full language repertoire’. These languages are needed especially when processing academic school tests, presented in the new language which students have not yet acquired. The paper reports on studies where immigrant students are tested in multilingual tests and reach significantly high scores compared to those tested only in the new language. In experiments, using a variety of tools, students showed positive attitude to the procedure as they felt recognition and respect. Multilingual tests need to be practiced in schools to avoid language rights violations. Multimodal assessment methods are also proposed as additional ways for expanding the underpinnings of language construct. Lastly, it is recommended that language testing researchers and practitioners conduct research to identify cases of violate language rights and suggest new assessment models to overcome it, leading to increased social justice.

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