Staff within the School of Languages and Cultures have won a Teaching Innovation Grant from UQ’s Institute of Teaching and Learning Innovation to run a two-year project revitalising assessment practices across its eight language programs.
The project will provide additional descriptions of what students are capable of on course completion using “can do” statements from an internationally recognised set of standards called the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR). A significant advantage of the CEFR is that it is non-language specific and therefore applicable to all languages not just European ones.
Benchmarking the School’s courses against the CEFR will deliver sought-after benefits to language students, including the important ability to describe language proficiency in terms that are widely understood by exchange organisations and future employers.
The benchmarking process will also be an opportunity for the School’s academic staff to revisit the design of assessment tasks and marking criteria to ensure both alignment with the CEFR and students’ ability to demonstrate their capacity to achieve real-world tasks.
The extensive experience of the School’s academic staff in language assessment will be harnessed in workshop forums and then documented in a repository of sample assessment tasks. Cutting edge assessment tools will deliver proof students have reached a certain level in interaction as well as a consistent whole-of-School approach to language assessment, putting the UQ School of Language and Cultures at the forefront of standard setting in Australian higher education.
Keep up with the project here.
