Assessing English Language Learners: Theory and Practice

Assessing English Language Learners explains and illustrates the main ideas underlying assessment as an activity intimately linked to instruction and the basic principles for developing, using, selecting, and adapting assessment instruments and strategies to assess content knowledge in English language learners (ELLs). Sensitive to the professional development needs of both in-service and pre-service mainstream teachers with ELLs in their classrooms and those receiving formal training to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students, the text is designed to engage readers in

• viewing assessment as a critical part of teaching
• appreciating that assessments provide teachers with valuable information about their students’ learning and thinking
• becoming aware of the relationship among language, culture, and testing
• understanding the reasoning that guides test construction
• recognizing the limitations of testing practices
• being confident that assessment is an activity classroom teachers (not only accountability specialists) can perform

Highlighting alternative, multidisciplinary approaches that address linguistic and cultural diversity in testing, this text, enhanced by multiple field-tested exercises and examples of different forms of assessment, is ideal for any course covering the theory and practice of ELL assessment.

Guillermo Solano-Flores is Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, USA.