Language assessment in the wild

Abstract

In this final chapter, key themes developed throughout the book are related to short narratives of experience. These narratives recount transdisciplinary practices-in-process with the benefit of hindsight, and the coherence and clarity that comes from storying experience. Through these storied recollections of dialogue, actions, and interactions with collaborating transdisciplinary partners engaging in assessment research projects, the information, concepts, and discussion in Parts I and II of this book are linked to the “profitable confusion” (Paré, 2008, p. 20), navigable, negotiable “tension” (Messick, 1998, p. 38), and extraordinary potential of these dynamic, dialogic research spaces. If interpretations of assessment outcomes are to be meaningful, useful, and appropriate, the contexts within which they apply must be considered. Social theories – vast and varied as they are – provide useful, rival alternative perspectives and concomitant methodologies, which incorporate contextual diversity in considerations of validity. Language-centred readers and assessment-centred readers alike are encouraged to engage proactively, together, in transdisciplinary research (TR) projects, not only with researchers whose principal interest is language assessment, but with those who have the most to gain or lose in contexts of assessment use – where doors are opened or closed (or opening and closing) as a consequence of an assessment outcome.