Classroom-Based Assessment in the School- Foreign Language Classroom

Black and Wiliam’s (1998) influential articleInside the Black Boxprompted an increasing interest in assessment processes within the classroom. However, to date most of this research has been done in general and science education. This book reports on a detailed ethnographic study of Indonesian as a Foreign Language classrooms at two consecutive levels of schooling in Australia. Using the broadest possible definition of classroom-based assessment (CBA) and a grounded approach to analysis, data were used to develop a comprehensive framework for analysing CBA. This framework was then used to describe and compare assessment practices in the respective classrooms. The results demonstrate, inter alia, thathowassessment was conducted was as important aswhatwas assessed in these classrooms.