Adapting the Canadian Language Benchmarks for Language Assessment

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe the development of an instrument for assessing the writing development of students in an English-medium university in Japan. We begin with a description of the setting of the college and the unique nature of its program. Next we discuss the process of selecting a language proficiency framework suitable for the four years of the degree. The Canadian Language Benchmarks (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 1996) were chosen and subsequently formed the basis for the development of the rating scale. The process of developing the scale held a number of challenges, given the target population and the requirement to have an instrument usable by both language development specialists and nonspecialists. Issues such as the institutional context, the framework for evaluating language development, and development and refinement of the assessment scale over the first two years of the project are discussed.