Educating Emergent Bilinguals: Policies, Programs, and Practices for English Learners (2nd edition)

Abstract

forms of testing will empower these populations, and other multilingual populations, to change the way they perceive their language abilities. A significant step in the right direction would be to start classifying multilingual learners correctly in testing and to stop comparing them to monolinguals or bilinguals. Multilingual Testing and Assessment is essential to the expansion of the field of language testing and assessment. The invaluable information provided in this book can help make the testing industry more aware of the heterogeneity of multilingual learners. This awareness can lead to an increase in the visibility of assessments written in multiple languages. This book also contributes to the normalization of language mixing and code-switching and conveys the powerful message that mixed forms of testing should be allowed, given that they are an authentic representation of the way multilinguals use language in everyday communication. Multilingual learners are a representation of society’s diversity. Therefore, testing and assessment must be designed to align to meet the needs of all language learners.