Using an Assessment Use Argument to Guide Classroom-based Assessments

Lyle Bachman (University of California, Los Angeles) & Barbara E. Damböck (Akademie für Lehrerfortbildung und Personalführung)

Lyle Bachman Professor Emeritus of Applied Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a Past President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics and of the International Language Testing Association. In 1998 he won the TESOL/Newbury House Award for Outstanding Research, has twice (1991, 1997) won the Modern Language Association of America’s Kenneth Mildenberger Award for outstanding research publication, and in 2012, along with Adrian Palmer, won the Sage/International Language Testing Association award for the best book published in language testing. In 1999 he was selected as one of 30 American "ESL Pioneers" by ESL Magazine; in 2004 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Language Testing Association, and in 2010 he received the Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award from the American Association for Applied Linguistics. He has published numerous articles and books in the area of language assessment.

Prof. Bachman teaches courses and conducts practitioner training workshops in language assessment and serves as a consultant in language assessment for universities and government agencies around the world. His current research interests include validation theory, classroom- based language assessment, standards and linking in assessment, and issues in assessing the academic English of English learners in schools.

Barbara Damböck is currently on leave from her position as the Director of Studies, English Department, at the Akademie für Lehrerfortbildung und Personalführung (Teacher Training Academy) in Dillingen, Germany where she worked from 2003-2011. She has also served as a Vice-Principal and classroom teacher in German elementary and high schools. Ms. Damböck has had extensive experience in the area of teaching English as a foreign language, as a teacher, teacher trainer, and as a teacher of teacher trainers. She has conducted numerous courses and workshops for teachers and teacher trainers around the world, in Canada, China, Italy, Namibia, and the United Kingdom, as well as in Germany.

Her publications include School Leaving Oral Examinations for High School, Grade 9 and School Leaving Oral Examinations for High School Grade 10 and, with Lyle Bachman, Language Assessment for Classroom Teachers (Oxford University Press, 2018). Her current areas of interest include modern foreign language teaching, classroom-based language assessment, the assessment of speaking, content-based instruction, the use of technology in language teaching, cultural studies, and curriculum development.

In this workshop we will guide participants through a new approach to developing classroom-based language assessments.  This approach is based on our new book, Language Assessment for Classroom Teachers (Oxford University Press, 2018).  The workshop will provide both a conceptual foundation and practical guidance for developing classroom-based language assessments.  Workshop activities will include informal lecture and discussion with real-life examples, along with small-group “hands-on” practice with participants working on classroom-based language assessment projects of their own.  Participants will work in small groups to develop language assessment tasks.

• Participants should bring to the workshop ideas for specific language assessments that they are either working on or need to develop.  These will provide the substance for the small-group activities.
• It would also be very useful for each participant to have a copy of Bachman, L. F., & Damböck, B. E. (2018). Language assessment for classroom teachers.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.

No prior training in language assessment is required, and the workshop will not include any activities involving statistics.