Seminar description

This introductory seminar focuses on one of the most practical areas of applied linguistics – language assessment. In this seminar, we review the central theoretical concepts and practical considerations in language assessment.
As a seminar participant, you will gain an understanding of what role authentic language assessment plays for different purposes. Expanding on the assessment quality, you will become familiar with construct, validity, reliability, and practicality concepts. Additionally, you will learn about the development of assessment tasks and rating approaches. Finally, the seminar will also cover recent trends in the use of technology for language assessment, as well as the main concepts in fairness and ethics of language assessment.
You will also get a chance to apply the knowledge gained by developing and presenting your small-scale project at the end of the seminar.

Aims of the seminar:
• developing a holistic understanding of the main areas of interest in language assessment
• gaining the knowledge of terminology used in language assessment and being able to apply it in the context of the seminar and outside of it
• developing competence in the critical evaluation of the existing assessment tasks
• gaining insights about methods for research in language assessment
• developing competencies in assessment task development
Overview of seminar content:
• familiarisation with the role of language assessment and its purposes
• familiarisation with qualities of effective assessment systems
• familiarisation with the main stages and principles of assessment instrument development
• familiarisation with language assessment for different purposes and of different skills
• familiarisation with recent trends in applying technology in language assessment
• familiarisation with main fairness and ethics considerations in language assessment

This seminar will examine different aspects of plurilingualism, as well as plurilingual teaching and learning in language classrooms. In the following, you find a list of topics we will talk about in the seminar:

• Defining and critically assessing terms that are used in the area of plurilingualism
• Analyzing the work done by the Council of Europe regarding plurilingualism (FREPA, CEFR descriptors, companion volume of the CEFR, European Language Portfolio
• Getting to know the importance of language awareness
• Exploring existing plurilingual teaching and learning approaches, methods, task, and activities that can be used in the language learning classroom
• Developing and implementing your own plurilingual activity within the seminar
• ...

The seminar links research to practice. The class work will consist of thematic as well as scientific work input, discussions, individual work, group work, reflection tasks, …

BA students:
For the ungraded “Seminarleistung” (SL) you will be required to do the following:
1. OASIS summary (https://www.oasis-database.org/) + short presentation of summary

For the graded "Prüfungsleistung" (PL) you will be required to do the following:
1. OASIS summary (https://www.oasis-database.org/) + short presentation of summary
2. Portfolio (8–10 pages) consisting of
2.1 Comparison of two articles (one article can be the OASIS article)
2.2 Task about language awareness
2.3 Reflection task


MA students:
For the ungraded “Seminarleistung” (SL) you will be required to do the following:
1. OASIS summary (https://www.oasis-database.org/) + short presentation of summary in which you also explain the study’s relevance for teaching practice

For the graded "Prüfungsleistung" (PL) you will be required to do the following:
1. OASIS summary (https://www.oasis-database.org/) + short presentation of summary in which you also explain the study’s relevance for teaching practice
2. Term paper (13–15 pages) consisting of
2.1 Mock research project including a developed research instrument
2.2 Reflection task

The seminar will be offered in both the BA and MA programmes. In order to ensure a suitable seminar for the different students, the internal differentiation is as follows. On the one hand, the scope of the Seminarleistung (ungraded assessment) and the Prüfungsleistung (graded assessment) will be adjusted accordingly. On the other hand, group work is used to cater for students' different prior knowledge and requirements and to integrate these into the seminar in a meaningful way.