This course will focus on how to design, develop, and implement different kinds of language tasks and tests in order to assess competence of learners of Spanish as L2, both in oral and written language skills. In order to achieve these goals, we first will review the most influential models of language as communicative competence to make clear what is to be tested when we want to assess language ability in L2. Then, the course will concentrate in the analysis and design of the different possible type of tests tasks aimed for the assessment of Spanish L2. This course, even though will reflect on the substance of language ability and the theories underlying the making of a good test, will have a practical orientation. The main purpose is to provide future teachers of SL2 with both a theoretical basis which will allow them to have a critical vision of the topic of testing, as well as with the resources to develop useful tests for the variety of situations they might find in their different teaching contexts. Therefore the methodology will combine theory and practice with discussions from the readings from the required text and other sources, critical reviews of different examples of L2 test, and the design and development of tests tasks of different levels for oral and written skills. (1 unit)

Required text: Teresa Bordón, La evaluación de la lengua en el marco de E/L2: Bases y procedimientos (Madrid. Arco Libros, 2006) (ISBN: 84-7635-644-7).