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Language Institute 2007-08 Lecture Series: Assessing Language Learning

Making the Most of Assessment and Evaluation in College Foreign Language Programs

john_norris

John Norris
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
12:00 pm, Monday, September 10, 2007
254 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Avenue

Abstract:
In college foreign language (FL) education, we face considerable—and increasing—demand to assess our students’ learning outcomes and evaluate our programs. However, while these processes are fundamental to effective and worthwhile education, their present utility in many tertiary FL settings may be limited at best. In this presentation, I first trace a few received traditions of assessment that have set the mold for current practice in college FL education; I also reflect on the constrained roles played by program evaluation to date. I then report key findings from a recent survey of college FL program administrators, highlighting their perceptions on the potential utility of evaluative processes, as well as their concerns and the constraints they face in getting useful assessment and evaluation done. In response, I propose a reconceptualization of how we go about assessing and evaluating by beginning with the more fundamental question of why we are doing so in the first place. I then demonstrate the kinds of supportive, even transformative, roles that assessment and evaluation can play in FL programs, in particular as heuristics for dealing with the inevitable changes that are taking place across higher education and within our FL disciplines.

All lectures in the series are free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Language Institute, with funding from the College of Letters and Science Anonymous Fund.

 

 

 

 

 

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Upcoming

 

Lecture: New Media Literacies and the 21st Century Language Learner
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11:00 am, Saturday, May 31
104 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Avenue

An invited lecture for the 20th Annual Conference of the Central Association of Teachers of Japanese. Learn more >

Interdepartmental Orientation Workshop for New UW-Madison Language Instructors
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A workshop for new language instructors comprised of lectures, readings, demo lessons, and practice teaching. Learn more >


Upcoming in the Fall 2008

Online Chinese courses for business professionals! Learn more >

New online methods course for postsecondary instructors of less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) Learn more >

 

 



 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 


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