SELFFormative Language Assessment System

SELF German – Progress Report

The German SELF project (IdEx Formation 2023-2025), supported by the Service Des Langues and Grenoble INP, is a continuation of previous SELF tests. It thus benefits from the support of Innovalangues partners and the methodological apparatus developed. It is supported by the descriptors of the CEFR and aims to propose tasks with a strong situational and interactional authenticity and thus close to situations of current use of the language - in particular through digital written interactions, interactions with AI tools, understanding a variety of textual genres, a wide variety of speakers or visual work on task design).

The team of 3 designers and the scientific referent (Service des Langues, Grenoble INP, Sciences Po Grenoble), as well as two pedagogical engineers from the Service des Langues and Grenoble INP have been involved in the design since September 2023, the management, analysis and review of tasks designed for levels A1 to C1. SELF German also benefits from the support and members of Innovalangues and the expertise of a statistician for psychometric analyses intended to validate the items tested during the pilot 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