Increasing Assessment Literacy Among LCTL Instructors Through Blended Learning

This article describes the need for assessment literacy among less commonly taught language (LCTL) educators as well as one approach toward providing professional development to such educators. This article first provides background on assessment literacy and, specifically, language assessment liter...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Victoria C. Nier, Anne E. Donovan, Margaret E. Malone
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages 2009-08-01
Series:Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncolctl.org/files/Increasing-Assessment-Literacy-Among-LCTL-Instructors-Through-Blended-Learning.pdf
Description
Summary:This article describes the need for assessment literacy among less commonly taught language (LCTL) educators as well as one approach toward providing professional development to such educators. This article first provides background on assessment literacy and, specifically, language assessment literacy. It documents the critical role assessment plays in language programs to ensure that student learning outcomes can be documented. Next, it examines the specific challenges of assessment for LCTL instructors, both because of the dearth of assessments in these languages and as the assessment background of LCTL instructors, which, like that of many foreign language educators, may be limited. To illustrate one approach to improving assessment literacy in LCTL instructors, this article describes a case study that suggests that blended learning may be a successful professional development method for LCTL instructors. Finally, the article explores the challenges and opportunities inherent to such an approach, while also recognizing the limitations.
ISSN:1930-9031