Alternative computer assisted communicative task-based language testing : new communicational and interactive online skills

Abstract

Computer-assisted language learning knowledge tests should no longer be designed on traditional skills to measure individual competence through traditional skills such as reading, comprehension and writing, but instead, it should diagnose interactive and communication skills in foreign languages. In recent years in online education, it has been necessary to review the concept of interactive competence in digital environments in a complementary way to its traditional use. It is important to promote a new typology of alternative tasks and items in tests where examinees can prove a real interactive performance in communication and interaction through the digital scenario. This should be done through tools that facilitate oral negotiation, the management and understanding of the information extracted from online repositories, the search for suitable online digital material, and the use of new modes of audio-visual communication. Although some of these tasks have been used in a complementary way in the design of language tests previously: it is true that they have not been applied in a coherent way to be used as an assessment tool. A first approach was made by Miguel Álvarez, García Laborda & Magal-Royo (2021) in the development of oral negotiation skills through the use of interactive tools. The current online assessment models analyzed by García Laborda & Álvarez Fernández (2021) indicate the need to seek new ways of assessing foreign languages through the design of tests that fit in the current digital and interactive world.