Designing authentic assessments for foreign language learning environments

Abstract

Integrating authentic and meaningful assessment practices into the teaching and learning of foreign languages has been recognised in the second language acquisition and pedagogy literature as critical to foreign language development. This paper describes research that investigated the benefits of integrating authentic assessment tasks into a mixed level university foreign language course delivered in hybrid (blended) learning mode. Intermediate and advanced level students of Italian at an Australian university collaborated with each other and selected native speaker e-mentors to complete two tasks that reflected the critical elements of authentic tasks. Data were collected and analysed through multi-data sources including students’ assessment tasks and reflective portfolios, individual and focus group interviews with students and e-mentors and messages contributed to online group discussion forums. Findings suggest that, despite initial challenges, there were significant benefits in integrating authentic assessment tasks into this course. The paper concludes with specific recommendations to guide the successful integration of authentic tasks into the teaching and learning of hybrid foreign language learning environments.