Language Centres at a Crossroads

This paper discusses the opportunities and obstacles in implementing learning-oriented assessment in a high-stakes test-taking environment. It is a case study on second foreign language learning and teaching in Japan, with evidence taken from classroom diaries, self-evaluation, and peer-evaluation data. Japan is a country where the institutional learning structure is focused on high-stakes tests; learners experience throughout their schooling mainly an approach to teaching and learning for which the aim is preparing for the test. Despite that environment, the classes in a second foreign language try to use tasks for promoting a more learning-oriented attitude. Learners are persuaded to engage in learning-oriented assessment (i.e. classroom-diaries, self- and peer-evaluation) through activities involving knowledge and skills required for the course. In particular, they have opportunities to complete tasks that are closer to real life activities (Carless, Joughin and Liu, 2006: 9-10) or tasks that matter to learners in a more personal way. This follows Black and Wiliams insight that formative assessment provides "information to be used as feedback to modify teaching and learning activities" (1998: 2). That background could be confirmed only partly in this case study. The outcomes were that the 'no final test'-setting of the classes provoked on the learners' side some reluctancy in engaging in the first place. The tasks and the formative assessment seem to leave space for the students to develop their skills, but their feeling of satisfaction is not as strong as compared to a summative test. Most learners would trust the result of a summative teacher-induced final classroom test more than the "observable results of learning" derived from formative feedback using "insights from assessment to improve performance and to progress learning (Green, 2017: 113). It seems that the goals for more learner agency hit the wall of assessment, as learners place more value toward related grading. Strategies promoting a more pro-active, self-directed learning definitely help to facilitate classroom management (O'Dwyer and Runnels, 2014; Schmenk (2014): 'Sprachlernberatung'). However, only a few learners used the feedback and the self-reflection tools for goal setting or monitoring the progress of their learning. This implies that explaining both the background of formative assessment and the criteria for successful language use to the learners is vital for understanding the concept of the instruction which emphasises learning-oriented assessment over a learning for testing.

Beim Fremdsprachen lernen gilt Japan als prüfungsorientiertes Land mit einer Ausrichtung auf die Zentralprüfung für den Universitätszugang. Um den Lernenden ein lernorientiertes Verfahren im Sinne eines bewusstmachenden Zugangs zum Fremdsprachenlernen zu ermöglichen, werden im universitären Unterricht Deutsch als zweite Fremdsprache verschiedene Bewertungen (Selbstevaluation, Peer-Evaluation, Unterrichtstagebuch) in Verbindung mit Kannaufgaben und einem handlungsorienten Unterricht angeboten. Die Praxis in Japan zeigt, dass die Akzeptanz für formative Bewertungen, die eher auf die Entwicklung des Lernens und die Kompetenzen zielen, gegenüber standardisierten Sprachstandsmessungen nicht besonders hoch ist. Studierende und Universitäten verlangen ein faires und durchsichtiges Verfahren bei der Bewertung. Deshalb ist es wichtig, den Erklärungsbedarf im Hinblick auf lernorientiertes Bewerten ernst zu nehmen. Dieser Beitrag möchte in der Praxis erhobene Daten von Studierenden vorlegen und diese vor dem Hintergrund der aktuellen Diskussion zu Assessment for learning bzw. Learning-oriented assessment, die eine gewisse Nähe zur Lernberatung haben können, diskutieren. (144 words)

References:

• Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and Classroom Learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 7–74.
• Carless, D., Joughin, G., & Liu, N. F. (2006). How assessment supports learning: Learning-oriented assessment in action, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
• Green, A. (2017). Learning-oriented Language Test Preparation Materials: A contradiction in terms? Papers in Language Testing and Assessment, 6(1), 112–132.
• O'Dwyer, F., & Runnels, J. (2014). Bringing learner self-regulation practices forward. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 5(4), 404-422.
• Schmenk, Barbara (2014), Autonomie durch Beratung? Überlegungen zu einem reflektiven Autonomiebegriff und seinen Implikationen für die Sprachlernberatung. Berndt, Anette & Deutschmann, Ruth-Ulrike (Hrsg.). Sprachlernberatung – Sprachlerncoaching. Frankfurt/M.: Peter Lang, 13-31.

Maria Gabriela Schmidt is a professor at Nihon University, College of Humanities and Sciences, Department of German Philology in Tokyo, Japan. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Linguistics from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. Her teaching experience at the tertiary level in linguistics and German language stretches for more than 30 years (in Germany, South-Korea and Japan). Her research interests include historical linguistics, applied linguistics, intercultural communication, foreign language teaching pedagogy and the CEFR. Recently she was involved in the publication O'Dwyer et al. 'Critical Constructive Assessment of CEFR-informed Language Teaching in Japan and Beyond' (Cambridge University Press, 2017).