米国の大学における日本語テスト評価:ニューノーマルにおける研究課題

要旨

<p>Higher education has gone through unprecedented emergencies and challenges in changing our instruction and assessment from the traditional face-to-face format to online. American universities and colleges are no exception. The pandemic has had a lasting impact on American higher education. With this background in mind, this paper will start by discussing how the pandemic has transformed our assessment and evaluation practices at higher education in the United States (U.S.) in general, and Japanese language testing in particular. Among the various assessment tools available for teaching Japanese, testing remains the most widely used assessment procedure in the U.S. This paper will raise issues concerning Japanese proficiency standards, criterion-referenced testing for classroom assessments, and grading. It will also discuss the issues related to some of the most influential Japanese proficiency tests in the U.S., i.e., the ACTFL OPI/OPIc, Advanced Placement (AP) exams, and the <i>Nihongo Nōryoku Shiken</i> (Japanese Language Proficiency Test [JLPT]). The paper will demonstrate that more research will be needed on Japanese language assessment and testing from multiple perspectives, such as validity, impact, practicality, and institutional support. It will conclude by providing a future research agenda for assessing Japanese in higher education.</p>

主題