The purpose of the current talk is to discuss the affordances of scenario-based language assessment (SBA) as a technique for eliciting performance and measuring a broadened range of constructs related to the assessment of CLIL outcomes. This talk first relates assessment design to real-life competencies and shows how learning-oriented assessment can serve as a design framework for these assessments. Then, it defines SBA and describes how scenarios, conceptualized as a purposeful set of carefully sequenced, thematically-related tasks designed to simulate real-life performance, can provide a concrete mechanism for measuring an expanded range of theoretical constructs related to CLIL. Finally, the talk illustrates with an example how learning-oriented assessment has been used as a theoretical framework for designing SBAs and the insights obtained from such an assessment.
James Purpura
James E. Purpura is Professor of linguistics and education in the Applied Linguistics and TESOL Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he teaches L2 assessment and L2 research methods. He served for several years on the Committee of Examiners at ETS, and currently serves on the Defense Language Testing Advisory Panel in Washington, D.C. In 2017, Jim was a Fulbright Scholar at the University for Foreigners of Siena.