Translanguaging in assessments: perspectives on the strategies and implications for multilingual classrooms

Abstract

Despite South African higher education consisting of a large number of multilingual students and teachers, assessments remain largely based on English monolingual constructs. This demands that all students taking the assessments should be proficient in the language of assessment. Monolingual assessments undermine the multilingual competencies of multilingual students and the diverse linguistic resources that enable them to best indicate their understanding and knowledge. Assessment practices conducted with English monolingual ideology bring about underachievement and demotivation for students whose first language is not English. To counter such negative effects, this article brings forth translanguaging in assessments. Translanguaging in assessment allows multilingual students to ‘shuttle’ between all their existing linguistic resources to indicate what they know and what they can do with the knowledge. This conceptual article reflects on the negative aspects of monolingual assessments and why they are not fair, not valid and bring about inequalities in attainment of learning outcomes. It then reviews literature on translanguaging in assessments. Later, the article brings forth the strategies and approaches that can be used to initiate translanguaging in assessments in multilingual settings. Last, but not least, the article discusses the implications of translanguaging assessments for pedagogy and for language policy, especially in South Africa.