Developing Multilingual Assessment with Teachers to Engage Students' Learning Potential

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 4:15 pm - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Language, Equity, and Meaning-Making in Assessment for Multilingual Learners: Global Perspectives

Abstract

Re-envisioning assessment for multilingual classrooms, this study explored multilingual (ML) assessment in the K-12 education context. ML assessment recognizes the complex, dynamic language practices and functionally integrated language repertoires of bi/multilingual students, emphasizing how students make meaning with the range of multilingual, multisemiotic and multimodal resources at their disposal. Drawing on fieldwork conducted with English as a Second Language (ESL) and mathematics teachers in two school districts in Ontario, Canada, the study contributes empirical insight into teachers’ development and use of ML assessment to engage students’ full linguistic repertoire for assessment and evaluation purposes. Analysis focused on change in teachers’ assessment strategies and how ML assessment can be implemented, by (i) making multilingual thinking visible, (ii) centering student choice and voice, and (iii) creating multilingual assessment resources. ML assessment strategies facilitated teachers’ understanding of students’ linguistic strengths, flexibility, and learning potential, and helped teachers use that information to subsequently improve student learning and guide instruction. The study contributes to the development of fair and equitable assessment tailored to the diverse sociolinguistic landscape of Canadian schools, advocating for a paradigm shift in how language and curriculum assessments are designed and implemented. Implications for cultivating teachers’ ML assessment literacy are discussed.

Authors

• Saskia Van Viegen, York University

• Nancy Bell, University of Toronto - OISE

• Noah Khan, University of Toronto - OISE