Preparing Teachers for Language Assessment: A Practice‐Based Approach

Abstract

As the number of English language learners in mainstream classrooms increases, so too does the need for teachers skilled in classroom‐based language assessment (CBLA). All teachers must be able to monitor, evaluate, and support the English language development of their students. With a paucity of research on how to prepare teachers to enact ongoing, meaningful assessment of language development, this article describes how teacher candidates’ learning of CBLA was embedded into practice, responding to the question: How can teacher educators embed candidates’ professional learning of CBLA into practice across different course settings? The authors discuss the key elements of a practice‐based approach and describe how these elements were applied to the teaching of CBLA in both a controlled and a designed setting. The article concludes with teacher candidates’ reactions to this approach and recommendations for situating teacher learning of CBLA into practice.