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Current Projects Listed
below are some of the projects I am working on these days, and I have included
(or will include) links to relevant web sites and materials, when available.
For more information on a given project, e-mail
me. |
Thistle, |
College foreign language program evaluation and assessment
My project entitled
“Identifying and responding to evaluation needs in college foreign language
programs” has been funded by the US Department of Education (2005-2008). Year 1
of the project focuses on an analysis of the demands and capacities for program
evaluation in US college FL departments, while years 2 and 3 involve the
development and testing of strategies and resources for enhancing evaluation
capacities. Check the FL
evaluation project website for updates.
In conjunction with
this project, we hosted an annual conference of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages
in summer 2007, and the UH National
Foreign Language Resource Center sponsored a summer institute on FL program
evaluation also in summer 2007.
Along similar
lines, I have given numerous talks and workshops on evaluation and assessment
over the past few years, and associated resources can be accessed on the FLPEP
web site at:
http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/evaluation
Task-based language teaching and
assessment
I am continuing my work in TBLT through several
on-going projects. At the Georgetown University German Department, we are
investigating the use of task-based writing assessment for informing the
improvement of curriculum and instruction in an undergraduate FL program.
GUGD
writing assessment project
I also delivered a plenary address on the role of
assessment, measurement, and evaluation in TBLT programs, on September 23, 2005
at the first international conference on
task-based language teaching, hosted by the
Norris TBLT
Plenary Address Powerpoint
Norris TBLT
Plenary Address References
We also hosted the second international TBLT conference at the
University of Hawai‘i in September 2007, and
at that web site you can find more resources related to the International
Consortium on TBLT and a book series that we have launched with John Benjamins.
Research synthesis and meta-analysis
Following up on our
meta-analytic work published in Language
Learning, Lourdes Ortega and I have co-edited a collection on the use of
research synthesis and meta-analysis for addressing problems in second language
learning and teaching. The following appeared in 2006-2007:
Norris, J. M., & Ortega, L. (Eds.). (2006).
Synthesizing research on language learning and teaching.
Norris, J. M.,
& Ortega, L. (2006). The
value and practice of research synthesis for language learning and teaching. In
J. M. Norris & L. Ortega (Eds.), Synthesizing research on language
learning and teaching.
Norris, J. M.,
& Ortega, L. (2007). The future
of research synthesis in applied linguistics: Beyond
art or science? TESOL Quarterly, 41(4), 805-815.
Measurement and instructed second language acquisition
Lourdes Ortega and
I have also been working on advancing the contributions made by measurement
within research on instructed
In addition to our
meta-analytic work,
Norris, Ortega,
& Mislevy AAAL 2003 handout
Norris, J. M.,
& Ortega, L. (2003). Defining
and measuring
Advanced L2 learning
In a plenary at the
2005 GURT conference, I addressed the demands on assessment presented by
current interest in “advanced” levels of foreign language learning.
Georgetown University Round
Table on Languages and Linguistics, 2005
A chapter based on
that plenary appeared in the GURT 2005 proceedings volume from Georgetown
University Press.
Norris, J. M. (2006).
Assessing foreign language learning and learners: From measurement constructs
to educational uses. In H. Byrnes, H. Weger-Guntharp,
& K. Sprang (Eds.), GURT 2005: Educating for Advanced Foreign Language
Capacities: Constructs, Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment (pp. 167-187).
Norris & Ortega, at work on another collaboration
