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,…

Pearson's Learning Foundations describe the optimal conditions for learning and reflect the learner experience Pearson hopes their products will create. Pearson does this by incorporating the Learning Design Principles. Each of the Learning Design Principles goes into detail about a key principle, supporting product design and marketing by…

In the ever-evolving landscape of education, this paper explores the symbiotic relationship between Outcome-Based Education (OBE) and the English language curriculum, unraveling insights crucial for modern pedagogy. A comprehensive consolidation of literature reviews emphasizes the global recognition and adoption of OBE, highlighting its…

Motivating students towards language learning includes embedding meaningful themes, communicative tasks, and authentic assessments. When voice and choice are held as essential qualities of the task, students invest in the resources to make meaning and express their own thoughts, thus moving us away from traditional assessments that emphasize…

A broad view of assessment development and design procedures portrays existing theories and methodologies as not fully representative of the knowledge, skills, and abilities students need to perform in the 21st century. Acknowledgement of these inadequacies has led to developments in assessment research attempting to meet contemporary expectations…

Over the last few years, I have seen a significant impact on student learning from improving and adapting my instruction in three main areas: backward designing instruction for target proficiency levels, transitioning to standards-based grading, and implementing performance-based assessments that focus on proficiency. These strategies have not…

This article suggests effective approaches to teaching English language learners in ways that can be of benefit to all students in mainstream middle and high school English classes. The five approaches described herein that mainstream ESL teachers can do to make assessments more accurate and reliable, as well as to address heterogeneity, are: (1)…

Since 1995, the population of English language learners (ELLs) in the United States has increased by an astonishing 57% (Maxwell 2009). Though ELLs come from many different backgrounds, they share the common challenge of learning English while responding to academic content demands. Part I of this two-part article provides key strategies every…

This document summarizes a study that examines the relationship between performance on Utah's English proficiency assessment and English language arts and mathematics content assessments by English language learner students and compares the performance of English language learner and non-English language learner students on the content…

Accreditation and accountability recently have been prominent in national conversations about the preparation of teachers. Members of our profession have developed standards to which we will hold ourselves as we prepare foreign language and world language (F/WL) teachers for the 21st century. As a participating Specialized Professional Association…

This working paper introduces an assessment rubric for a Structured Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP[R]) lesson plan. The paper begins with a brief review of the context of the assessment rubric, including the background of SIOP, the need for authentic assessments for language minority students, and the usefulness of rubrics to measure…

Task-based language assessment (TBLA) grows from the observation that mastering the grammar and lexicon of a language is not sufficient for using a language to achieve ends in social situations. In TBLA, language use is observed in settings that are more realistic and complex than in discrete skills assessment and that typically require the…

This article reports on "Beyond the OPI: Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) Design Project," a three-year (1997-2000) research initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education International Research and Studies Program. The primary goal of the project was to develop an integrated skills assessment prototype that would measure…

Until recently, little attention has been paid to the language and academic needs of English as a second language (ESL) students in the social studies classroom. In the most recent review and one of the few written on social studies texts and instruction, Short (1998) found that ESL students do not receive the language and academic support they…

Ensuring that language tests for adult English language learners are appropriate, valid, and reliable is a challenge. Performance-based assessments are complex to develop and implement. Yet, because the focus of assessment, both in the National Reporting System for Adult Education (NRS) descriptors and in the Department of Education's definition…