Testing and assessment of linguistic-communicative competence in schools: thoughts on L1 and L2 Linguistic Education

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Testing and assessment of linguistic-communicative
competence in schools thoughts on L1 and L2
Linguistic Education

• Monica Barni, Carla Bagna, Sabrina Machetti
• Università per Stranieri di Siena (I)
• EALTA Conference, Krakow, 19-21 may 2006

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Objectives

• Work in progress project in cooperation with the
  Municipality of Florence.
• Starting point the problem of assessing
  linguistic and communicative competence in
  Italian L2 of children and youngsters from
  families of foreign origin entering the Italian
  school system,
• Broader objective to induce the teachers to
  reflect on the topics of assessment within the
  domain of language education, be it L1 or L2.

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In Italian school system

• there is a lack of knowledge on language testing
  and assessment
• partly due to the fact that the subject is
  scarcely considered during the training of future
  language education teachers
• or, if it is,
• the focus is very much on the psycho-pedagogic
  domain, paying more attention to methods and
  techniques than to reflections on language

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The research context in Italy

• increasing presence of pupils who are the
  children of immigrant workers
• the arrival of foreign students is having the
  consequence of leading reflections towards the
  question of teaching, learning and assessing
  Italian not only as L2, but also as L1

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Students of foreign origin

• are in a disadvantaged position attention is
  focused only on the lack of adequate competence
  in Italian.
• Surveys of the Ministry of Education (2005) show
  that
• the average percentage of positive results is
  lower for foreign students than for Italian
  students
• criterion used pass rate criterion

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Pass-rate criterion

• two different criticisms
• - firstly it is not subject to standardised
  criteria in all Italian schools, but is decided
  through assessment that vary according to
  individual classes and individual teachers
• - secondly it does not provide us with any
  explicit information as to the degree of
  competence achieved by students

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Furthermore, linguistic problems

• are not only restricted to foreign immigrants
  and their children and to their learning process
  of Italian L2
• international surveys such PISA show us that
  Italian students reading abilities decrease as
  they progress through the school system
• urgent need for the education system to engage in
  some in-depth reflection on the theme of language
  education and the continuous development of the
  four basic skills

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The local context of the research

• The Municipality of Florence
• has established a strong policy for the support
  of pupils from foreign families
• has set up five literacy centres within its
  territory, one in each of the citys five
  administrative districts
• teachers specifically assist foreign pupils in
  learning Italian L2

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However

• there is a discrepancy between the work carried
  out by the literacy facilitators and curricular
  teachers
• the sphere in which the lack of communication
  between the work of the literacy teachers and the
  school teachers appears to be more evident is in
  the consideration of linguistic and communicative
  competences acquired by the pupils in assessment
  procedures

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Type of intervention

• The Municipality of Florence, in collaboration
  with the CILS Centre at the Università per
  Stranieri di Siena, designed a general training
  programme on language testing and assessment.
• In-depth discussion on the questions of
  assessment in a school context, the need for
  coordination between assessment of language
  competences and knowledge of curricular subjects,
  and the need for good and ethical practices
  during assessment (phase 1).

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Type of intervention

• History was then selected as a sample subject,
  taking a basic-level (A1 A2) learner profile
  for reference.
• The ability selected was reading comprehension.
• Teachers divided into two groups, according to
  their teaching range, creating one working group
  for primary schools (age range 6-11) and one for
  secondary/middle schools (age range 11-14).

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Type of intervention

• Specifications for reading comprehension were
  discussed and texts were selected.
• Teachers reflected on the importance of the
  textual dimension in learning and assessment
  processes, and on the identification and
  application of criteria for the selection of
  texts, regarding factors such as readability,
  density of information, linguistic complexity,
  discourse structure, length of text, etc.

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Results of the first two phases

• Common and shared basis for literacy facilitators
  and teachers, so that they could work together to
  create instruments and products for use in
  class.

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Second part of the project

• History tests were written and presented to the
  classes of various schools in the Municipality of
  Florence as from April 2006, and still under
  trial.
• By the month of June we expect to collect all the
  tests and perform a detailed analysis of the
  results.

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Conclusions

• If the hypotheses are confirmed by the results,
  this should lead to the approval of models and
  protocols for the production of assessment tools
  and criteria for primary and secondary schools,
  which could then involve a greater number of
  teachers, schools, curricular subjects and
  abilities