19 March 2022
Prof. Emma Marsden, NCELP Director, presented the following session at Language World in Sheffield – 19 March 2022
Fairer Foreign Languages?: Assessment, analytic ability, and access to achievement
Marsden, E. (2022) Fair assessments support equal access to achievement. We illustrate how defining language content may promote greater ‘achievability’. Analyses of examinations show the unnecessary burden created by much of the current Subject Content/specifications never appearing in exams, whilst much language ‘off’ the specifications does appear in exams.
This heavily skews assessment towards lexical inferencing, an essential skill that requires robust prior knowledge and analytic ability, which not all pupils are fortunate enough to have. We illustrate how making goal posts more visible for all, via class activities, SOW, and knowledge personalisation may improve intrinsic motivation from primary through to A level.
