Multilingual Testing and Assessment

The field of multilingual testing and assessment has grown rapidly in recent years due to the widespread need to integrate immigrant populations into mainstream education and to provide fair and equitable forms of assessment for all students. However, a continuing emphasis on bilingual students has created a significant gap in testing and assessment research. This book addresses the need for research and guidance on testing multilingual students: at its heart is the difference between designing multilingual tests and testing multilingual individuals. The author introduces an integrated approach to testing and assessment, a flexible approach that combines information about multilingual learners' knowledge, skills and abilities with information about their language background and living environment. The book provides an overview of existing research conducted with multilingual populations; provides guidelines for test-writers, teachers and educators that outline the steps involved in the design, administration, scoring and interpretation of tests for multiple language speakers; and demonstrates how to use the integrated approach to testing and assessment in a multilingual educational context.

Gessica De Angelis is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Centre for Language and Communication Studies at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She researches and publishes extensively within the areas of multilingualism, multilingual testing and assessment, crosslinguistic influence and language education. Among her works is Third or Additional Language Acquisition (2007, Multilingual Matters).

Acknowledgements Chapter 1. Multilingual Testing and Assessment                           Chapter 2. Traditional, Holistic and Integrated Approaches to Testing and Assessment         Chapter 3. From Bilingual to Multilingual Education Chapter 4. Multilingual Assessment Practices in Education Chapter 5. Developing Tests for Multilingual Populations Chapter 6. Assessing Multilingual Narratives Chapter 7. Multilingual Narratives: The South Tyrol Study Chapter 8. Looking Ahead References