Asian Association for Language Assessment

An important development in the field of language education has been  the shift towards approaches that integrate content and language. Many  of these approaches are not new. Bilingual education, for example, has a  long history as a way to address the educational needs of students  throughout the world who, due to globalization and immigration, are  learning content in schools through a second or additional language. The  field of language for specific purposes also has a long history of  addressing teaching and learning at the intersection of language and a  specific content area, often a professional field. In recent decades,  approaches that integrate content and language have expanded further.  Examples include the CLIL movement in Europe and Asia and the rapid  increase in the number of English-medium universities in places where  English is a second or foreign language. Although the integration of  content and language in instruction is now fairly common, little is  known about the role of assessment in these contexts. What should be  assessed? Are language and content separate and distinct constructs or  are they inextricably linked? And what are the implications for language  assessment?

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In  this talk, I will argue that, despite increasing efforts to integrate  content and language, current definitions of language proficiency may  not be as useful when the goal is to support learners’ content learning  as well as their language learning. Using science standards and  instruction in the U.S. as an example, I will propose an alternate  conceptualization of English language proficiency that embraces and  leverages the overlap between content and language by focusing attention  on the aspects of language that are most critical to communicating  disciplinary meanings. I will illustrate how this approach affords  unique opportunities for rich formative assessment practices in the  classroom.