This year the focus is on how to assess and credit learners’ language proficiency; how to credit language learning gained in the classroom and in the home and community. This is a key issue facing languages teachers and curriculum developers. We are very fortunate in having a key international expert in this field, Professor Jim Tognolini.

Assessing languages: accounting for language skills gained in and outside the classroom

This presentation starts with a quick overview of the core elements of Modern Assessment Theory. Traditionally, the mode of assessment that has been used to certify the achievement of students is based upon standardised achievement tests (e.g. HSC language examinations, IELTS, etc.). However, Professor Tognolini argues that times are changing and the ways that students (and people in general) can account for their skills for the purpose of accreditation are also changing. Examples will be given where skills obtained in and outside the classroom are being “accounted for” in relation to relatively high-stakes assessment, in ways that might be utilised in the assessment of language skills.