ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the assessment of intercultural capabilities in language learning. It frames assessment as a cycle that involves conceptualising, eliciting, judging, and validating as a process in which each part of the cycle interconnects with and influences the others. Using this cycle, the authors present a discussion of assessment that is not simply a set of procedures but a way of working. They argue for an overall orientation to assessment that foregrounds a qualitative paradigm as a way of engaging with intercultural capabilities in language learning. Quantitative paradigms are not sufficient and part of the difficulty in assessing has been an over-reliance on traditional modes of assessment without considering their relevance to encompassing, expanded understandings of language and cultural capabilities. It recognises that learners develop distinctive capabilities related to ‘moving between’ languages and cultures. The chapter adopts a multilingual approach that recognises that languages constitute a repertoire in which all languages are relevant and necessary for understanding learners’ capabilities. This challenges models of assessment driven by tests and scales developed within a monolingual frame. The chapter foregrounds short- and long-term perspectives and the need to move beyond viewing assessment as episodic to seeing it as situated within ongoing learning.
