View Content #20905

Imagine a language student on the computer interacting with an avatar either with voice and/or text in his or her L2. In the simulation the student needs to buy something from the store and must interact appropriately with the avatar to accomplish his or her goal. The way the student uses language in this scenario could tell the teacher about his or her decision making process and intercultural competence skills.

CASLS, in collaboration with AELRC, is currently working on the challenging task of creating a digital simulation to assess L2 learners’ abilities to interact in culturally appropriate ways. The two centers are designing, building, and validating the simulation, which is made up of lifelike scenarios designed to measure intercultural competence and appropriateness in a multilingual environment. This simulation is for students learning L2 in formal educational contexts and the purpose is to provide instructors with a profile of their students’ intercultural competence and enable them to provide students with appropriate instructional interventions.

This digital simulation assessment will be composed of three scenarios. The first is a peer-to-peer interaction where the student must make plans for the weekend with a friend but as the weekend gets closer a complication arises requiring negotiation. The second is a service transaction where the student must purchase a needed item. The third occurs in a school setting where the student must negotiate with the instructor about his or her school schedule for the upcoming year. The goal is that allowing students to interact in this simulated yet realistic digital space will shed light on learners’ ability to express and interpret meaning in situationally appropriate ways.

This project is called IPIC, intercultural pragmatic interactional competence, assessment. It’s intended for high school and university level students and will first be offered in Korean and Spanish. To learn more, visit the project page on CASLS’ website.