Abstract
The experience age is changing both the way we teach world languages and the way we assess second language learners. In intermediate and advanced proficiency-level content classes taught in the target language, alternative assessments effectively interweave proficiency and content outcomes, and they place communication in the target language at the forefront. This chapter describes a variety of alternative assessments for second language (L2) learners of intermediate and advanced proficiency, their alignment with course outcomes, and how those assessments impact the selection of active discussion instructional activities by backward design. It offers practical tips for creating and implementing alternative assessments.
TopBackground
The Information Age was “a time period marked by transition into the technological world and increased access to digitized knowledge” beginning in the 1970s (Annunziato, 2020, para. 1). During that time, communication was primarily a means to improve the accessibility of information (Bennett, 2019), and knowledge was viewed as something to be tapped into and accumulated. The increasing ease with which people can access information in the twenty-first century, however, has influenced the way they view, interact, and use it. Now, “society has become saturated with information and therefore is becoming selective about where, what and how it consumes information” (Bennett, 2019, para. 4). It is that element of experiencing rather than merely consuming that is the hallmark of the current Experience Age, a time in which “people want to experience everything…to be immersed in the story of the experience creating the feeling of living” (Bennett, 2019, para. 7). World language learners are no different, and they, too, want to be more than simple consumers or accumulators of information. Learners desire to use information in the classroom as they do outside of it, “as a portal to create memorable and meaningful experiences” (Annunziato, 2020). As Bender notes, “the average student enrolls in Spanish (or Modern Languages) courses to learn a language and to work towards proficiency” (p. 557-558), to feel a part of the experience “versus just serving as a bystander” (Bennett, 2019, para. 7). This interaction and immediacy of experience is the hallmark of the Experience Age (Wadhera, 2016), and it permeates learners’ lives. In L2 content classes at the intermediate and advanced levels, this understanding of the context of the Experience Age encourages a rethinking of traditional forms of assessment and language use to prepare learners for genuine experiences and real communication.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Alternative Assessment: A performance-based assessment by which learners demonstrate their learning in place of more traditional forms assessment such as examinations and tests.
L2: A language that is not a speaker’s first or native language.
Synchronous Meeting Tool (SMT): Web-conferencing tool used to connect participants in geographically diverse locations by allowing them to meet at the same time in the same online space.
Integrated Performance Assessment: A performance-based assessment integrating tasks to target each of the three modes of communication (Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational).
Active Discussion: A learner-centered approach in which participants work together to construct learning through communication with a purpose.
Target Language: The language of study in second language classes.
Oral Proficiency Interview: A standardized interview assessment used to determine a speaker’s proficiency in a language.
F2F: Face-to-face. Refers to classes taught in person in real-time and the same space.