Scenario-based assessment is a fairly recent approach to assessment that uses carefully sequenced, thematically related tasks designed to simulate real-life performance. Scenario-based assessment also incorporates feedback, simulated assistance, interaction, and integration of language skills. In this presentation I will highlight the main features of scenario-based assessment, demonstrate a few scenario-based assessment tasks, and examine the potential of scenario-based assessment as a technique for measuring the English language proficiency of young learners.

 

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Alexis A. Lopez is a Research Scientist in the English Language Learning and Assessment Center at Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, New Jersey. His areas of interest include assessing the language proficiency and content knowledge of English learners (ELs) in K-12 public schools in the United States. His work at ETS has focused on developing more accessible content assessments for ELs, examining how technology can be used to improve classroom assessments for ELs, and examining the use of dual language assessments. Alexis earned a Ph.D. in Education with a certificate in Advanced Study in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also holds an M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.A. degree in Spanish and English from the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional in Colombia. Prior to joining ETS, Alexis was an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and an assessment developer at Second Language Testing Inc. in Rockville, Maryland.