--- Forwarded Message from "Sarah Withee" <[log in to unmask]> --- >Subject: #9403 recommendation for language testing tools >Date: Fri, 7 May 2010 08:44:39 -0600 >Thread-Topic: #9403 recommendation for language testing tools >Thread-Index: AcrtUQXMzbKWjVcfRHmdLb2SWzp9VgACjecAACYY9cA= >From: "Sarah Withee" <[log in to unmask]> >To: <[log in to unmask]> The STAMP test is a Web-based assessment testing students' reading, writing, and speaking abilities. STAMP reports scores according to benchmarks related to the ACTFL Performance Guidelines at the novice and intermediate levels. For us, this means the test is appropriate for students in romance languages through the end of their second year of study. We at Colorado College have used STAMP in Spanish, French, and Japanese as part of our reaccreditation assessment process. It is expensive ($18/test), but because the testing company rates student performances, it does not require any work on the part of faculty. I do have to get the computer lab ready and do troubleshooting during the exam, when for some reason the microphones don't work, or the computers crash. More information is available at http://www.avantassessment.com/education.html If you are interested in building your own tests, you might want to take a look at the ACTFL integrated performance assessment model. This is not a computer-based test. Rather, it is a framework for designing assessments that are pegged to the ACTFL proficiency guidelines. ACTFL sells a booklet on their website which describes the performance assessment framework, and the Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey have some example IPA assessments at their website at http://flenj.org/CAPS/?page=149 The IPA is a bit of a paradigm shift (it evaluates performance in the interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational modes, rather than the traditional "four skills"), so it may not be the easiest thing to figure out on your own. ACTFL will be hosting a daylong workshop on the IPA at their conference in November in Boston. Paul Sandrock, past president of ACTFL, will also lead a more general workshop on assessing student performance. I was able to attend the workshop given by Paul Sandrock at the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers conference, and found it to be an invaluable introduction to how to think about assessing student performance in languages. If you have professional development funding available, you might want to look at attending one of these workshops. Sarah Withee Instructional Technologist Colorado College [log in to unmask] (719) 389-6381 -----Original Message----- From: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of LLTI-Editor Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2010 1:19 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: #9403 recommendation for language testing tools --- Forwarded Message from Birgit Deir <[log in to unmask]> --- >Date: Thu, 6 May 2010 11:20:05 -0400 (EDT) >From: Birgit Deir <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: recommendation for language testing tools Hello, Would you have a recommendation for language testing tools to test students' abilities at the beginning and the end of a semester/year, etc.? Are there tools that follow standards set by ACTFL or MLA? We would like using such a tool across several languages. Thank you for your advice, Birgit Birgit Deir Emerson Language Lab Director Nazareth College 4245 East Avenue Rochester, NY 14618 (585)389-2864 *********************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives at http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A0=LLTI Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) ***********************************************