ABSTRACT
Assessing CLIL poses a major challenge for those researchers working in the framework of the traditional model of communicative competence, where the best effort has been made to exclude factors unrelated to language ability to establish validity of the assessment. However, assessing Soft CLIL can be taken as the opportunity for researchers and practitioners alike to set language assessment practices up to a new dimension by establishing the principle of assessing a learner’s authentic language use ability. To achieve this goal, however, would require drastic re-conceptualisation on the part of the assessor and ultimately on the part of all test users. Amongst others, perhaps the most important involves conceptualising a range of key terms, such as reliability and validity, so they may guarantee the quality of language assessment to hold its entire accountability to stakeholders. The purpose of the present chapter is to suggest the traditional principles of language assessment in a new angle for the sake of conducting an effective assessment of Soft CLIL. The chapter concludes with examples to help readers to employ the new principles in their own contexts.
