When internationalization meets assessment

Abstract

As university curricula adapt themselves to changing social conditions, they find they must take into account the forces of globalisation. Reporting on one of the case studies from QUT’s "internationalizing the curriculum" project, this paper explores what it is to teach a language to a cohort of students which is already internationalized to some extent, and which will work in an internationalized context. While intercultural competence and awareness are often cited as by-products or even goals of language programmes, the inclusion of the demonstration of such competences in assessment design is often under-explored. This paper will present some proposed solutions for linking the unit objective of training in intercultural competence to assessment tools consistent both with models of (inter)cultural skills and with the principles of criterion referenced assessment.