Implementing Portfolio-Based Language Assessment in LINC Programs: Benefits and Challenges

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Ripley

Although earlier research has examined the potential of portfolios as assessment tools, research on the use of portfolios in the context of second-language education in Canada has been limited. The goal of this study was to explore the benefits and challenges of implementing a portfolio-based language assessment (PBLA) model in Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) programs. Data were gathered through semistructured interviews with four LINC instructors involved in a PBLA pilot project in a large Canadian city. Similar interviews were con- ducted with a representative of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and a de- veloper of the PBLA model. Participants identified both benefits and challenges related to PBLA implementation. Based on their feedback, recommendations for future implementation are provided.Bien que la recherche antérieure ait porté sur le potentiel des portfolios comme outils d’évaluation, la recherche sur leur emploi dans l’éducation en langue sec- onde au Canada est limitée. L’objectif de cette étude est d’explorer les bienfaits et les défis relatifs à la mise en œuvre d’un modèle d’évaluation linguistique reposant sur le portfolio (PBLA) pour la formation dans les cours de langue pour immi- grants au Canada (CLIC). Les données ont été recueillies par le biais d’entrevues semi-structurées avec quatre enseignants de CLIC impliqués dans un projet pilote PBLA dans une grande ville canadienne. Des entrevues similaires ont eu lieu auprès d’un représentant de Citoyenneté et immigration Canada et d’un développeur du modèle PBLA. Les participants ont identifié les bienfaits et les défis relatifs à la mise en œuvre du modèle PBLA. En s’appuyant sur leur rétroac- tion, on fournit des recommandations visant la mise en œuvre à l’avenir.

1981 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.E. Lambert ◽  
I. Boehler ◽  
N. Sidoti

ABSTRACTThis study explored novel ways of using the media for education, especially second language instruction. Various combinations of visual and auditory presentations of messages were compared, for example, both written script and spoken dialogue in subjects’ first language (L1), or script and/or dialogue in a second laguage (L2), and so on. Subjects were elementary pupils with advanced training in L2. The dialogues of radio programs were transcribed, permitting such combinations as: dialogue in L2, script in L1 (the normal subtitling format); dialogue in L1, script in L2 (reversed subtitling); both dialogue and script in L1 or in L2; and so forth. On L1 and L2 tests of memory, certain combinations (e.g., reversed subtitling) were much more promising for the development or maintenance of second language skills, or for literacy training, than was conventional subtitling. Theoretical and practical inplications are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-170
Author(s):  
Ellen Simon ◽  
Chloé Lybaert

Abstract As a result of growing mobility and migration flows, the number of non-native speakers of Dutch in Belgium and the Netherlands have gradually increased over the past decades and so have the number of people enrolled in Dutch as a Second Language education. While there is huge variation in the profiles of these non-native speakers, they almost exclusively have in common that their Dutch sounds, in some way and at some stage, accented. In line with worldwide trends in foreign language teaching, the pronunciation goal in Dutch as a Second Language education has shifted from native-like to intelligible. Indeed, the notion of intelligibility has become prominent in language teaching and assessment. In this paper, we discuss the complexity of this notion and set it off against related terms like ‘comprehensibility’ and ‘foreign accent’. Through a literature review, we argue that intelligibility is an interactional and context-sensitive phenomenon: it is as much a responsibility of the speaker as it is of the listener or conversational partner(s) in general, whose attitudes will have an impact on the intelligibility and thus on the conversational flow and communicative success. After reviewing literature on the intelligibility of Dutch as a Second Language, we end by formulating some promising lines for future research.


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