Language assessment frameworks as language policy

Abstract

Reviewing the development and implementation of the Steps to English Proficiency (STEP) language proficiency assessment framework in Ontario, Canada, this article calls attention to how language proficiency is operationalised in English language proficiency (ELP) standards in ways that may institutionalise hierarchies among home, school and community language practices. Use of these standards for classroom-based language assessment requires teachers to play a defining role, to observe, interpret and make judgements about students’ bi/multilingual language practice. However, STEP was developed and validated based on teacher perceptions of students’ language use, revealing the monolingual ideologies at work in Ontario education. The study concludes by discussing opportunities for teachers to identify, observe and document students’ multilingual practice through teacher-inquiry to align curriculum and assessment policy and practice with the sociolinguistic reality of Ontario’s multilingual classrooms and communities.