ABSTRACT
Multilingual students are subject to assessment practices based on monolingual demands that perpetuate linguistic prejudice and hold deficit views of students. Rhetorical preferences regularly marginalize and penalize those who do not use standard academic English (SAE) or have non-Western knowledge backgrounds. Faculty preoccupation with linguistic difficulties removes instructors from students' lived experiences and diversified arguments which often leads to biased assessment. The chapter discusses empirical research into linguistically sustaining pedagogy, transnational identities, theoretical frameworks, and practical assessment recommendations. Student and faculty perspectives highlight insights into pedagogical strategies that reveal the need for assessment practices that foster transnational identities and limit monolingual ideologies.
Research respondents indicate a desire for linguistic backgrounds to be valued in the transition to and participation in academic discourse communities as seen possible in Pratt's contact zone, which moves toward a more pluralistic approach. Assessment recommendations under the framework of the Academic Literacies Model and Bakhtin's dialogism bring students into discourse communities while also valuing different forms of rhetoric and examining power structures. Transnational students deserve explicit critical asset-based pedagogy and equitable assessment with a focus on identity-safe classrooms drawing on backward instructional design. English classrooms can work to decenter centers of knowledge and address issues of power within institutional demands.
