Written feedback commentary (WFC) on L2 student writing is a widespread and time-intensive teacher practice, serving a range of roles and purposes. One of the challenges in providing effective WFC is attending to the many content and delivery options that are possible, some of which have been shown to exert tangible effects on students and their…

This timeline is concerned with Dynamic Assessment (henceforth, DA) as it has been taken up and elaborated in contexts involving the teaching, learning, and assessment of learners of second languages (L2s). DA is distinguished by its insistence that an individual's independent performance of assessment tasks reveals only part of his/her abilities,…

In the digital era, writing experience usually comes in the form of digital writing in virtual spaces. Social network sites are the ubiquitous platforms where authentic communication makes writing meaningful in our daily life. In addition, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged all human activities to be done online. In the academic…

Assessment can provide information about student learning and the effectiveness of classroom strategies, but what are the special considerations when used with English learners? To better understand the research about how schools and systems can support multilingual learners through assessment, Elizabeth Foster spoke with Margo Gottlieb, an expert…

This book is a comprehensive introduction to the topic of assessing students who use two or more languages in their daily life. The book provides foundational information for assessing multilingual learners (MLs) in schools, with an emphasis on school language and content. Major assessment ideas are viewed through a framework called PUMI (Purpose,…

The development of writing skills in L2 contexts has been the focus of researchers over the last three decades with feedback (FB) receiving attention for the positive impact it can have on the learning process. The peer feedback technique (PF) is one tool employed by language instructors that has facilitated the provision of useful FB to learners.…

Despite research attention to varied and nuanced social processes through which linguistically minoritized multilingual students create texts, writing instruction and assessment in schools continue to be dominated by a focus on students' written products. Even formative assessment-- arguably one of teachers' most powerful tools in designing…

The language assessment issues discussed in this paper are set against the backdrop of the English as an additional language (EAL) provision for students from ethnic and linguistic minority communities in the publicly funded school education system in England. We will first provide a background description of the educational response to linguistic…

The global status of English as a lingua franca necessitates effective English language teaching (TEFL) to meet the demands of the global economy and social development. This article explores key principles for effective TEFL, grounded in a sophisticated theoretical framework that integrates cognitive, sociocultural, and constructivist…

One of the challenges of developing assessments for young language learners is the shortage of evidence-based information about such assessments for languages other than English. In light of this situation, this paper discusses the development of an assessment for young languages learners in the context of Japanese as a second language (JSL). In…

One of the possible ways of assessing students' collaborative work in Virtual Exchange (VE) is by the use of Peer Assessment (PA) -- a formative assessment technique in which students review each other's work to provide descriptive feedback on the basis of a set of criteria. This article describes a VE procedure, in which students from three…

This paper presents the reflections of one of the authors, a junior faculty member, on teaching a master's level, English-medium instruction (EMI) course. The course was titled, "International Research on Teacher Education," and it took place in a Chinese research-intensive university. It was, in part, a response to the need for…

This reflection looks at pedagogic strategies employed in General Chemistry classes for English Language learners (ELLs) in a rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The approaches included the use of small group systems thinking (ST) activities and a variety of formative assessments geared toward maintaining and enhancing students' language…

A very important element of formative assessment is giving and receiving feedback. However, most teachers face difficulty in giving students feedback due to various reasons, such as the large number of students in class that makes it time consuming for them to do so. Fortunately, students themselves can be excellent sources of feedback through…

Since 2012 an interdisciplinary and culturally heterogeneous team composed of more than 30 people has been engaged in the complex process of conceiving, designing and validating an online placement test with formative orientation called SELF (Système d'Evaluation en Langues à visée Formative), developed and already deployed in six different…