Topic: Exploring the influence of ACTFL’s Integrated Performance Assessment on teaching in an intensive summer language program
Abstract:
Within the growing research base on ACTFL’s Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA), scholars have yet to rigorously explore the influence that this testing framework, which is meant for use principally as a summative assessment tool, has on the instruction that precedes it – a phenomenon known as washback (Cheng, Wantanabe, & Curtis, 2004). Furthermore, the paltry data that have been collected on the IPA related to washback come solely from interviews with instructors and are thus lacking a key source of information for making washback-related claims: observations of teaching (Adair-Hauck, Glisan, & Troyan, 2013).
To fill this gap, the present study investigated washback related to the IPA in an eight-week, university-level intensive summer language program in its third year of using the IPA for its midterm and final exams. Data were collected from three instructors who were new to the program (in Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish) and consisted of interviews at the beginning, middle, and end of the program (focusing primarily on any changes made to teaching due to the IPA’s use for exams) and audio recordings of one day’s worth of classes per participant per week.
Data analysis revealed shifts in participants’ instructional practices and thinking about teaching and assessment, indicating a washback effect of the IPA in the program. Discussion of these findings will be geared toward foreign language teachers and program administrators who are interested in implementing the IPA in their local contexts.
Biography:
A native of southeastern Massachusetts, Jason Martel began his career as a secondary school French teacher. He has extensive experience in the Middlebury ecology, having worked for the Middlebury School of French, the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy, and now the Middlebury Institute. At the Institute, he teaches courses in language pedagogy, assessment, curriculum design, and second language acquisition and maintains an active research agenda in these domains.
Since 2014, Jason has served as associate director of the Institute’s Summer Intensive Language Program (SILP). His principal duties in this capacity include hiring and professionally developing faculty members and setting a pedagogical vision for the program. He enjoys the synergistic relationship between his SILP and faculty responsibilities; his teaching is enriched by his experiences working with veteran instructors in SILP, and SILP serves as a laboratory setting for his scholarship on language pedagogy.
Jason also participates in a variety of professional activities related to language education. He is an active member of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) and the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Currently, he serves as Secretary of ACTFL’s Teacher Development Special Interest Group and is a recent recipient of the organization’s Research Priorities Grant. In addition, he consults around the country in the areas of foreign language curriculum design, pedagogy, and assessment.