Language Assessment and Programme Evaluation

This book explores key areas of modern society in which language is used to form power and social relations. These are presented in five sections:

Language and the Media
• Language and Organisations
• Language and Gender
• Language and Youth
• Multilingualism, Identity and Ethnicity

This volume examines the overlapping areas of evaluation and assessment, where 'evaluation' is defined as the systematic use of information to make decisions about language teaching programmes and 'assessment' as the systematic use of information to make decisions about individuals and their language ability. A variety of topics are covered, including paradigms and purposes, design techniques, quantitative and qualitative methods for collecting and analysing data, and ethical, social and political considerations in the conduct of evaluation and assessment.

The book has two important goals: to underscore the relationships between the enterprises of evaluation and assessment, and to encourage the use of new paradigms in our approaches to these enterprises.

Key Features

• The first treatment of assessment and evaluation in one volume
• Exercises and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter
• Includes an extensive bibliography.