234 / 2018-04-15 02:47:12

Developing standards for assessments at an EMI course – to make what is taken for granted come true

standards for EMI assessments, standards for language tests

全体主题 > Principles and methodology of developing standards for language assessment

Like in many other non-anglophone countries in the world, there is a fast-growing trend in Vietnam to shift from English being taught as a foreign language to English being the medium of instruction (EMI) in academic programs, ranging from primary to tertiary levels. However, as noted in a study by the British Council conducted in 2013-2014 on EMI in 55 countries, although it is widely taken for granted that EMI can bring about English proficiency improvement, there has been to date very little empirical evidence for it.
The currently reported research project is to contribute to filling that gap. But more importantly, it is motivated by the need from its home institution – the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (ULIS). At this university, it has been a common practice since long before that English is used as the medium of instruction for many core subjects offered at third and final years in their undergraduate English-major programs. However, there has never been any formal regulation that forced teachers to do it; nor has anyone ever questioned why they chose to do so and what they should aim at by doing so.
However, in its reformed curriculum introduced in 2012, ULIS set the learning outcome standards for its English-major graduates at C1 English proficiency level, while only offering proficiency subjects during the first two academic years with the learning outcome standards at B2 level only. The students are then expected improve their English competence up to the graduation standards by attending EMI subjects during the third and fourth years. This means these EMI subjects are now to serve not only their traditional goal of equipping students with competencies specific to the content of the subject, but also the added mission to improve students' English proficiency up to certain standards as prescribed in the overall curriculum.
In this regard, this paper showcases the development of the learning outcome standards of one such EMI subject and the standards set for its assessments to assure the expected route for students to reach their graduation standards. The focus is on the operationalization of the CEFR-based descriptors in the standards developed for this EMI subject's assessments, with a hope to explicate how EMI can make the ever taken-for-granted benefit of improving learners' English competence become true.