Assessing cross-linguistic mediation : insights from the METLA project

Abstract

Despite growing interest and renewed calls to embrace a multilingual turn in education, particularly in terms of development and implementation of plurilingual pedagogies, a pervasive monolingual mindset is still observable in the field of assessment. In this contribution, we present the main characteristics of cross-linguistic mediation as an ability to be considered in the foreign/ second/heritage language classroom and discuss why and how it is particularly appropriate to renew assessment practices anchored in a monolingual tradition. The point of departure for our reflections is the Mediation in Teaching, Learning and Assessment (METLA) project within the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML), which sees cross-linguistic mediation as part of an individual's plurilingual repertoire. At the heart of the project is the view that alternative assessment tasks, which allow for the use of different languages, are useful in evaluating learners' performance in mediation as well as in developing learners' mediation skills as learners are encouraged to reflect on the entire mediation process.