Project Lead: Luisa Canuto (Associate Professor of Teaching, French, Hispanic and Italian Studies)
Co-Leads: Maria Adelaida Escobar Trujillo (Lecturer, French, Hispanic and Italian Studies); Ihhawa Kim (Lecturer, Asian Studies); Hessam Dehghani (Assistant Professor of Teaching, Asian Studies)
Project description
While the assessment of oral skills has always represented an important element in the overall evaluation of language students, the adoption of artificial intelligence and the challenges it presents to academic integrity particularly when assigning students at home written homework, has further increased its crucial role in language education. The goal of our project is to build an inventory of oral proficiency assessment practices that highlights strengths and challenges, contexts in which it has worked well (e.g. smaller classes, larger classes, etc.) and recommendations based on the experiences of language instructors. The project will include gathering feedback from UBC language educators on their practices, and surveying students and instructors on their experience and challenges with oral assessments
Research questions
- What characteristics (e.g., teacher-led/ peer-led or self-regulated; technology driven) of the oral assessment methods have proven effective in language education?
- What are the most reliable criteria for assessing oral proficiency in English-speaking university students learning a foreign language and how consistently are these criteria applied by UBC instructors?