One of the key competences in education, and more specifically in bilingual education, is evaluation: what and how to evaluate. One of the most important challenges for CLIL teachers (who teach content through English) is whether and how they should evaluate linguistic aspects. What is the relationship between language competence and knowledge in different subjects? For language teachers, on the other hand, the challenge lies in knowing how to evaluate the linguistic expression of academic content, both in their subjects and collaborating with their colleagues from other areas and levels.
Therefore, we designed a seminar entitled “Creation of tools to evaluate academic linguistic competence in History, Plastic Education, Natural Sciences, Spanish Language and English” (“Herramientas para evaluar la competencia lingüística académica en Historia, EPV, CCNN, Lengua e Inglés”), as part of the knowledge transfer objectives within the framework of the current R+D+i research project LongAd-CLIL: longitudinal study of advanced linguistic skills in CLIL.
The seminar, in which participated primary and secondary school teachers of the above mentioned range of subjects, offered foundations and principles to help teachers in CLIL settings face the evaluation of linguistic competences in different subjects in a coherent way.
The seminar consisted of 6 monthly 2 hour sessions between November 2019 and April 2020, in which texts written by primary and secondary CLIL students (collected as part of of the LongAd-CLIL project) were evaluated by the participating teachers using the method of comparative judgment. Taking these evaluations as a starting point, the seminar worked towards the following objectives:
- reflect on the criteria and evaluation practices of the participating teachers from the perspective of each of their disciplines;
- develop an assessment tool (rubric) that integrates language and academic content in different areas and levels;
- develop collaboration between teachers of Spanish, English, and content subjects;
- apply the new evaluation tools to teachers’ regular evaluation practice.
UAM-CLIL research group 