Annotated Bibliographies

Search our annotated bibliographies for the following areas:

Assessment – Topics include classroom-based, performance based, alternative, portfolio, theory, research, and standards.

National Standards – Features articles, books, and online resources on the National Standards.

Content-Based Instruction – Developed as part of the Content-Based Language Teaching with Technology (CoBaLTT) program at CARLA, this annotated bibliography is organized by teaching contexts including ESL, immersion, FLES, bilingual education, foreign language K-12 and postsecondary.

 Resources for Teachers

Interpersonal Tasks – were developed to provide students an opportunity to talk interpersonally in an open ended conversation using the topics below as a stimulus. The tasks were used with Spanish students to replace end of semester interviews which were time consuming and less spontaneous and negotiated than a conversation between two students.

Spanish students talked about weekend activities, French students talked about summer and weekend opportunities and German students talked about summer classes and part-time jobs.  Prior to the assessment, students completed a self-assessment.  The tasks were rated on a rubric. The materials can be downloaded (zipped file) for use with your students:

French

German

Spanish

For teachers of other languages, the rubrics included can be used for any language and stimulus materials in other languages can be substituted for the texts.

Minnesota Language Proficiency Assessments (MLPA) – A battery of instruments designed to measure learners' proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening at two intermediate levels on the ACTFL scale in French, German, and Spanish.

Rater Training for Proficiency Modules - were developed to provide teachers an online opportunity to explore and deepen their understanding of rating for proficiency. Teachers can explore and evaluate actual student responses to CoWA (Contextualized Writing Assessment) tasks and listen to student responses to CoSA (Contextualized Speaking Assessment) tasks and evaluate them using a holistic rubric. They can then compare their responses to ratings provided by two trained raters. CARLA is presently looking for teachers of French, German and Spanish to help pilot the modules. If you are interested, please contact CARLA - MLPA.

LCTL Assessment Resources
CLEAR has recently launched a website focused on LCTL assessment and can be seen on the link below
http://clear.msu.edu/assessment

Developing Speaking and Writing Tasks for Second Language Assessment: A Miniguide for Assessment Development (PDF) – This short guide contains a framework that will help teachers create speaking and writing tasks and tests that are directly linked to classroom practice. The guide includes tools and worksheets that can be tailored to a variety of classroom contexts and a range of students' needs, using a model based on extensive research and piloting done by the Minnesota Articulation Project members and the Assessment Team at CARLA.

Articulation of Language Instruction – Information about the Minnesota Articulation Project and the Proficiency-Oriented Language instruction and Assessment: A Curriculum Handbook for Teachers that is filled with proficiency-based language lessons and accompanying assessment rubrics.

Content-Based Learning Through Technology (CoBaLTT) – Features an online resource center that includes an instructional module with activities for learning about and applying the National Standards to teaching and assessment. The site also has many links to technology resources for creating tasks and rubrics, and a growing repository of content-based lesson plans that include assessments.

Less Commonly Taught Languages Project –Offers the Virtual Picture Album, an archive of digitized photographs and drawings with suggestions for incorporation into various in-class and out-of-class activities and the Virtual Audio-Video Archives are a collection of royalty-free audio and video files for teachers to use in their own exercises. The archives currently contain sound files in Arabic (Tunisia), Chinese (PRC), Chinese (Taiwan), Hebrew, Norwegian and Polish, with expansion to other languages in progress.

National Capitol Language Resource Center (NCLRC) newsletter features monthly testing tips for teachers on a variety of topics. 

Directory of Assessments

Foreign Language Assessment Directory (FLAD)

The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) created a Foreign Language Assessment Directory (FLAD) that is now available online. FLAD is a free, searchable directory of information on nearly 200 tests in over 80 languages. FLAD users can find information about assessments including the grade and proficiency level for which a test is intended, the skills targeted by a test, information about a test’s development and the publisher’s or developer’s contact information for further inquiries.

More information is available at: http://nclrc.org/about_teaching/topics/feature.html#new

Focus on the Standards

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) – Provides teachers with a wealth of information on the national standards and professional development opportunities for teachers to learn about creating assessments tied to standards.

CoBaLTT Instructional Module on the National Standards

Nebraska Foreign Language Standards (PDF) – Contains standards explanation, glossary, bibliography and learning scenarios.

New Jersey World Languages Curriculum Framework: A document in Support of the Core Curriculum Content Standards for World Languages.

Teaching Foreign Languages K-12: A Library of Classroom Practices. This video library from Annenberg Media, Learner.org, illustrates effective instruction and assessment strategies for the teaching of foreign languages in grades K-12 and "provides overviews of ACTFL’s Standards for Foreign Language Learning and new assessment practices, as well as 27 classroom programs. Language classrooms include Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Latin, Russian, and Chinese. The videos can be ordered on DVD or can viewed online.

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction > Standards for Learning World Language & World Languages & International Education Publication Sales.

Lesson Plans / Assessments

CoBaLTT Lesson and Unit Plans – content-based lessons and units developed by participants in the CoBaLTT project at CARLA. Many levels and languages are represented.

Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) – This grant supported the development of items banks currently used in the Minnesota Language Proficiency Assessments and a working paper entitled "An Operational Framework for Constructing a Computer-Adaptive Test of L2 Reading Ability."

Educator's Reference Desk has replaced the Ask ERIC: Lesson Plans – It contains the more than 2000 sample lesson plans, information for educators, information and archived questions that had been found on the AskERIC: Lesson Plans site.

E.L. Easton - Materials for Teaching and Learning – An excellent teacher resource that includes links to online tests and quizzes.

Guidelines for Portfolio Assessment in Teaching English – Provides an extensive explanation of portfolios and assessing skills with student samples.

Northeast and Islands Regional Laboratory > Teaching Diverse Learners – Features a discussion of assessment of particular interest to ELL teachers.

Pennsylvania Department of Education World Language web site's Curriculum and Instruction links to the Governor's Institute for World Language Educators featuring 2005 Portfolio Standards-based lesson plans in French, Italian, Latin and Spanish developed by teachers during the annual institute.

Teachervision's Lesson Planning Center – Offers resources related to assessment. See information on portfolio assessment in "Alternative Assessment" section.

Portfolio Assessment in the Foreign Language Classroom – This guide developed by the National Capital Language Resource Center provides downloadable organizers, rubrics, and planners. This free, web-based tutorial is designed to guide educators in creating and implementing a standards-based, foreign language portfolio assessment tied to their own curricula.

University of Minnesota - College of Liberal Arts Language Center – Lists of links organized by language. (Some links are specific to the textbooks and courses taught at UMN-Twin Cities campus.)

 Task / Rubric Development Tips & Rubric Banks

Chicago Public Schools – Instructional Intranet site featuring an Ideas and Rubrics section with many useful resources, including a rubric bank.

Fairfax County Public Schools > Performance Assessment for Language Students > Rubrics – An excellent resource for generic analytic and holistic scales for the interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational modes. Rater training information accompanies scales.

Prince George’s County Public School > Developing Performance Assessment Tasks – Describes the characteristics of effective performance assessment tasks and how they are scored.

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators is a categorized list of sites useful for enhancing curriculum and professional growth. It is updated often to include the best sites for teaching and learning. The Teacher Helpers page: Assessment and Rubric Information features a comprehensive list of rubrics for specific purpses.

 Software for Creating Activities, Assessments and Rubrics

ClassWeb Rubric Builder – A free service for of the Landmark Project for teachers. Teachers can construct rubrics or search for existing rubrics developed by other teachers.

Discovery Education – Tools to create quizzes and exercises.

English-Forum.com – Exercises for ESL/EFL students.

Hot Potatoes – A suite of authoring programs for making exercises from the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre.

Interesting Things for ESL students - The site features a variety of exercise makers and activities as well as listening samples for ESL students.

Quia – Create and store online tests, quizzes, and activities for students. Records and stores student results on server.

QuizStar – Allows teachers to construct quizzes that students can take online. Quizzes can be saved on the site.

RubiStar – Create rubrics for project-based learning activities. Features a tutorial on data analysis to help determine which tasks are difficult for students.

Interesting Things for ESL Students – Word games, puzzles, quizzes, slang, proverbs, and more.

Spellmaster.Com – allows teachers to create Flash vocabulary exercises.

Teach-nology's Rubric Generator – Create rubrics online; samples need to be modified for foreign language.

Webauthor – Create online activities and exercises.

 Organizations

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)

Assessment Systems, Inc. – Vendor of testing and statistical software packages.

The Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) – Produces examinations and certification for language learners. The ALTE frameworks describe five levels of language proficiency. See also the "can-do" statements for self-assessment. 

Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) – Maintains a database of language assessments.

Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) – A national information system funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to provide access to education literature and resources.

International Language Testing Association (ILTA) & Resources in Language Testing – A thorough collection of resources. Well-known experts in the field discuss language testing concepts in video clips. A very comprehensive bibliography and a Code of Ethics for language testers are available under the "ILTA > Publications" link. Includes numerous links to other resources.

Language Resource Centers – Title VI U.S. Department of Education Centers sponsor many projects related to assessment.

National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). Foreign language proficiency plans to assess foreign language nationally in grades 4, 8, and 12 between 2008 and 2012 through the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) program, often called "The Nation's Report Card." The framework for the assessment is available in PDF format under the search menu using the term "foreign languages."

National Center for Research on on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST)

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL). Pathways to School Improvement resource includes an assessment link.

Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation (PARE) – An on-line journal supported, in part, by the Department of Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation at the University of Maryland, College Park. Its purpose is to provide education professionals access to refereed articles that can have a positive impact on assessment, research, evaluation, and teaching practice, especially at the local education agency (LEA) level.

Teachers College Record, Columbia University.

 Learning Theory

Professor Richard H. Hall's virtual lessons – Provides  an explanation of current learning theory and its relationship to various testing methods.

 Listservs

FL-Assessments – A Listserv on Foreign Language Assessments for Practioners
The purposes of this list are:

• to provide a forum for practitioners to discuss current issues in developing assessments
• to share information and resources among professionals in the field
• to encourage collaboration in the area of language assessments.

Subscriptions to this list are open to everyone who has an interest in foreign language assessments. Please see the FL-Assessments page for subscription information.

FLTEACH – Foreign Language Teaching Forum listserv
A very active list serve for teachers of all languages and levels. To subscribe, send email message to listserv@listserv.buffalo.edu with the following as the body of the message:

subscribe  FLTEACH   [your_firstname]   [your_lastname]

LTEST-L – International Language Testing Association listserv,
Provides a useful discussion forum for language testers. To subscribe, send e-mail message to listserv@psuvm.psu.edu with the following as the body of the message:

subscribe   LTEST-L   [your_firstname]   [your_lastname]

A reply containing information about the list should come to you within a few hours.

 

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