This presentation looks into the opportunities for authenticity and learner autonomy offered by the move of a series of task-based language tests to a digital age. For this purpose, we present the result of a needs analysis and quantitative and qualitative data gathered in piloting phases of the new exams.
Task-based language assessment (TBLA) strives to assess appropriate and effective language use via tasks ‘that reflect the tasks and interactions that learners are expected to perform in real-life situations, within a particular domain’ (Van Gorp & Deygers, 2013). Authentic tasks and their development, therefore, are at the core of TBLA. As the world is changing, so is authentic language use: in the 21st century, real-life communication often happens digitally. Assessing learner competence in a digital environment therefore might (more) accurately reflect temporary real-life communication than paper-and-pencil tasks. Moreover, the practical advantages of a test delivered digitally are numerous. Following this line of thought, this paper focuses on the opportunities and limitations offered for task-based assessment by the transition from a paper-and-pencil to a digital test. Central to the discussion is The Certificate of Dutch as a Foreign Language (CNaVT), a task-based standardized test in transition, and the data gathered and analyzed in the design and trialing phases of the new online test construction of its five exams at different levels of the CEFR. In this paper, we will present (a) general and proficiency-specific needs captured by a needs analysis of real-life digital language use, (b) the resulting online tasks in the design and trial phase and (c) the reception of these digital tasks by various stakeholders of the CNaVT. The focus throughout will be on whether and how online testing can reaffirm and/or challenge the traditional strengths of TBLA over proficiency levels: does augmenting situational and interactional authenticity provides high content and face validity (Ross, 2012) throughout? Specific attention will go to the possibilities and limitations of online testing for increasing learner autonomy, and to stakeholders' reactions to this increased learner autonomy.
