SELFFormative Language Assessment System

SELF German – Progress Report

The German SELF project (IdEx Formation 2023-2025), led by the Language Department and Grenoble INP, is in line with the previous SELF tests. It benefits from the support of the partners of Innovalangues and the methodological system they have developed. It is based on the CEFR descriptors, and aims to devise tasks with a high degree of situational and interactional authenticity, so that they are very similar to current language usage - in particular through digital written interactions, interactions with AI tools, comprehension of a wide variety of textual genres and speakers, and visual work on task design).

A team of 3 designers and the scientific referent (Language Department, Grenoble INP and Sciences Po Grenoble), together with two pedagogical engineers from the Language Department and Grenoble INP, have been involved since September 2023 in the design, piloting, analysis and review of tasks conceived for levels A1 to C1. The German SELF project also benefits from the support of Innovalangues members and the expertise of a specialist in statistics and psychometric analyses to validate the items tested during the piloting phases.

The various steps achieved are encouraging for the progress of the project and in relation to the timetable set for the deployment of the SELF German test:

September - December 2023: the tasks and items for levels A1 and A2 (listening comprehension, reading comprehension and short writing) were designed and implemented on the SELF platform. The piloting of these tasks with cohorts of students and the psychometric analyses conducted allowed us to obtain 217 items for levels A1 and A2.

January – April 2024: design for higher levels started in January. The tasks for levels B1 and B2 have been designed and implemented. 4 pilot tests were developed, including the revised items of levels A1 and A2. The pilot projects were carried out with new participants from different institutions and courses at UGA (Grenoble INP, UFR Socle, Service des Langues, Sciences Po Grenoble).

May – July 2024: pilot analyses for B1 and B2 are underway. In parallel, the design is continuing for C1 level items.

Next steps

It is planned that these new items will be tested at the next academic year so that pre-tests can be assembled, a crucial new phase for the project. Once all the items have been piloted, analysed and selected, we will be able to consider the pre-test phases that will take place from the end of November. As we will have to mobilize a large number of students, we hope that other institutions in France, interested in SELF German, can contribute to the passing of these pre-tests and we thank the responsible in advance.

If you wish to participate with your school in the pre-test phases (end of November/ beginning of December 2024) you can contact directly Lara Sepcke (Pedagogical engineer - SELF German): lara.sepcke@grenoble-inp.fr and Catherine Felce (scientific manager - SELF German) : catherine.felce@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr