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Article Excerpt
Abstract
World language teaching continues to derive from coverage and low level skills, long after the Standards. Instructors and students are overwhelmed with what is taught rather than focusing on what true performance should look like in real world contexts. In light of ongoing research on assessment design practices, this paper outlines a design model that looks at cultural perspectives as sustained inquiry and the purpose for performance assessment evidence and skills.
Introduction
The Standards for foreign language learning, or 5Cs (National Standards in Foreign Language Education project, 1999/2006) of Communication, Culture, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities, are widely regarded as the cornerstone in the profession, typically discussed in methods courses and appearing on chart paper and lesson plans in schools. What is often found when working with teachers is evidence of disconnect between acknowledging the standards and practicing them. Teachers attempt to cover large portions of content, plan a lot of activities that may not address a performance goal, and consider assessment last.
Language acquisition implies understanding of cultural perspectives, practices, and ideas with the ability to respond appropriately and flexibly in varying contexts (Doughty & Long, 2003). Curriculum materials often do not guide teachers and learners to explore recursive concepts on cultural practices, perspectives, attitudes, or cultural response to a given topic, thus reinforcing an already myopic view of a culture. Unfortunately most materials offer cliched situations, formulaic drills, and cultural facts, yielding possible misinterpretations of different cultural groups. Furthermore, they seem to fall short in explaining performance assessment and do not assist teachers in design. Teachers can recite the standards and write them on lesson plans, but they often do not understand what the implications are for assessment. Most materials do not enable teachers to make the paradigm shift the standards require to make effective curriculum and assessment decisions (Eddy, 2006a). The lack of shift is a key reason why many teachers do not embrace performance based assessment, because they do not have the materials or training on the design process that will move them to think like an assessor, rather than an activity planner (Wiggins, 2006). Indeed, many teachers see instruction and assessment as distinct, investing energies in isolated and predictable skill practice, rather than planning for real world scenarios that demand flexibility and cultural perspective. The result is the language class assessed and taught the way it was prior to standards and performance based goals: textbook driven, coverage oppressed, and activity laden with no cultural anchor to cohere knowledge and skills, which remain decontextualized and memorized in isolation. The literature is rife with studies and suggestions for practical applications (Adair-Hauck & Pierce, Glisan and Foltz, 1998; Sousa, 2000; Wiggins, 1998). The premise behind their dormancy is the absence...
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