Introducing integrated language skills assessment at the language department of a Czech university
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Laura Haug
Abstract
Integrated assessment evaluates language proficiency through tasks that require the test-taker to produce a written or spoken output based on listening or reading comprehension (reading or listening-into-writing or speaking). Since integrated assessment aims at reflecting the communicative and cognitive requirements of academic life and other professions, it is considered a means of assessment that is both authentic and valid. Examples of integrated tests can be found in high-stakes examinations at universities with English as the medium of instruction, and in the standardised high-stakes examinations offered by ETS, Pearson Education and Trinity College London. This report provides an example of integrated assessment in action by describing a currently used integrated test developed at the Language Department of the Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic. Since 2018, this particular integrated test has served as the entrance examination for Biological Chemistry (EEBC), a bachelor’s degree course delivered entirely in English. By detailing the rationale behind the examination and the design process, this report aims to show that integrated assessment can provide a valid alternative to independent assessment at the tertiary level.
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© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
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- Activity Reports
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Articles
- Evolution of university internationalisation strategies and language policies: challenges and opportunities for language centres
- International teleconferences in EGAP courses: preparing students for prospective professional situations
- Designing language courses for twenty-first century competences: a model of teaching toward learner autonomy implemented in a university context in the Czech Republic
- Autonomy in language centres: myth or reality?
- “We learn from each other”: peer review writing practices in English for Academic Purposes
- Coping strategies in oral academic presentations of international undergraduate students in a Philippine university: a small-case study
- Anxiety in academic speaking situations among EFL majors: a case study
- Positive evaluation in the language of human resources: textbooks versus reality
- Promoting positive emotions among university EFL learners
- The motivations and identity aspirations of university students of German: a case study in Australia
- Towards bilingual expertise – evaluating translanguaging pedagogy in bilingual degrees at the university level
- Testing ImmerseMe with Chinese students: acquisition of foreign language forms and vocabulary in Spanish
- Activity Reports
- English for university admin staff: it’s all in the mix
- Developing interpersonal and intercultural skills in a university language course
- Introducing integrated language skills assessment at the language department of a Czech university
