Abstract

This chapter reports on recent mixed method research investigating the comparability between assessment in relation to linguistic and cultural diversity. It takes as its premise that assessment is an integral part of instruction that becomes a main component for attaining of equal opportunities. Therefore, assessment plays a key role in terms of the wider consequences at both individual and societal levels. One of the central functions of assessment is its measure of quality assurance and comparability for grading to such an extent that it is readily employed to indicate evidence of student achievement of standards and quality. This may sometimes present issues in terms of learner diversity. We focus on the challenges facing teaching in linguistically diverse learning settings in which a foreign language may be used as an alternative to instruction. Here we draw on a recent study from two separate multilingual learning contexts in Sweden. We shed light on the generic questions arising from such disjuncture in these linguistically diverse educational sites as evidence on a call for much needed scholarly attention on the quality aspect in assessment.

Highlights

  • This chapter takes up on the issue of comparability of academic assessment in contexts of linguistic and cultural diversity

  • Studies show that CLIL approaches fail to identify specific language learning outcomes in content courses or adopt appropriate teaching and assessment designs which accommodate the student’s language learner backgrounds [18, 23]

  • “Over the years we have found that teaching content in a language in which the students have limited proficiency differs significantly from teaching that same content in a students’ first language

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Summary

Introduction

This chapter takes up on the issue of comparability of academic assessment in contexts of linguistic and cultural diversity. This chapter draws on a recent study [15] conducted in two different multilingual contexts in Sweden, which pinpoints generic questions in relation to assessment in linguistically diverse education in need for more scholarly attention. One justification for this derives from observed inconsistencies in ontology, policy and pedagogy, which will be discussed in the following. The quality of assessment is closely related to fairness in the judgment of learning outcomes as well as in learning opportunities, which means that linguistically heterogeneous student groups require new ways of integrating language skills assistance within the curriculum. At the end of this chapter some suggestions are discussed in relation to curriculum design, teacher assessment literacy, responsibility for academic literacy and the educational organization around these

Background
Theoretical framework
Case in point from the Swedish context
Assessment values and principles
Why assess
What to assess
How to assess
And? The consequences of assessment
Applicability to other contexts
Findings
Concluding remarks
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