Using Alternative Assessment Methods in Foreign Language Teaching. Case Study: Alternative Assessment of Business English for University Students

Abstract

Alternative assessment methods have proven to be a comprehensive tool for testing language learners, especially at university level. As strategies based on the permanent assessment of students’ linguistic level, the methods of alternative assessment such as the portfolio or the project, share - due to the amount and the complexity of information they involve - the characteristics of formative and summative evaluation. The present paper aims at sharing the author’s experience of using alternative assessment during the Business English course of university students, a type of assessment which, as presumed in the premises of the research, offered the opportunity of quality and comprehensive evaluation not only of the learners’ linguistic competence, but also of their communicative competence.