Eunice EunHee Jang

The concept of communicative competence has been rendered as context-abstracted code-bound knowledge for language teaching and assessment. This Element offers a different perspective on 'communication' and 'competence'. Part I offers the rationale for this re-orientation. Part II examines the conceptual and pedagogic affordances and delimitations of the prevailing approach to communicative competence; Part III describes a conceptual re-framing of language use as ecological languaging in terms of embodied, situation-sensitive action through which people coordinate with others, artefacts, and environments; Part IV explores assessment approaches built on Bayesian principles for tracking learner development and progress by taking account of prior accomplishment, expert opinion, and emerging performance to create probabilistic trajectories; Part V focusses on professional developments related to conceptual refinement, curriculum design, teaching materials, and teacher education. Part VI considers some key future challenges. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The concept of communicative competence has been rendered as context-abstracted code-bound knowledge for language teaching and assessment. This Element offers a different perspective on 'communication' and 'competence'. Part I offers the rationale for this re-orientation. Part II examines the conceptual and pedagogic affordances and delimitations of the prevailing approach to communicative competence; Part III describes a conceptual re-framing of language use as ecological languaging in terms of embodied, situation-sensitive action through which people coordinate with others, artefacts, and environments; Part IV explores assessment approaches built on Bayesian principles for tracking learner development and progress by taking account of prior accomplishment, expert opinion, and emerging performance to create probabilistic trajectories; Part V focusses on professional developments related to conceptual refinement, curriculum design, teaching materials, and teacher education. Part VI considers some key future challenges. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Focus on Assessment recognizes the multiple roles teachers play in language assessment and the importance of teacher assessment competence. It explores key areas of teaching and assessment, such as ensuring a positive assessment experience, the importance of cognitively rich tasks that measure essential core language skills, and promoting learner autonomy. Examples from real classroom practice and key research studies are an integral part of the book, with activities to help you relate research and theory on language assessment to your own teaching context.