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Designing and Sustaining a Foreign Language Writing Proficiency Assessment Program at the Postsecondary Level
Author(s) -
Bernhardt Elizabeth,
Molitoris Joan,
Romeo Ken,
Lin Nina,
Valderrama Patricia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/flan.12153
Subject(s) - language proficiency , foreign language , curriculum , psychology , mathematics education , language assessment , writing assessment , process (computing) , pedagogy , medical education , computer science , medicine , operating system
Writing in postsecondary foreign language contexts in North America has received far less attention in the curriculum than the development of oral proficiency. This article describes one institution's process of confronting the challenges not only of recognizing the contribution of writing to students' overall linguistic development, but also of implementing a program‐wide process of assessing writing proficiency. The article reports writing proficiency ratings that were collected over a 5‐year period for more than 4,000 learners in 10 languages, poses questions regarding the proficiency levels that postsecondary learners achieved across 2 years of foreign language instruction, and relates writing proficiency scores to Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview ratings for a subset of students. The article also articulates the crucial relationship between professional development and writing as well as the role of technology in collecting and assessing writing samples.