Testing in bilingual education projects: Lessons learnt from the Additive Bilingual Education Project

Abstract

This paper discusses the topic of bilingual testing and the role played by the language of tests in home-language-based bilingual education projects such as the Additive BiLingual Education (ABLE) project. First, I highlight how national, macro-contextual contradictions in language in education affected the project. More specifically the impact of discrepancies between the additive bilingual language in education policy (LiEP) of the South African Department of Basic Education and practices around the language of tests such as the Annual National Assessments (ANA) are presented and analysed. The implications of these macro-contextual factors on bilingual education projects of a similar nature are discussed and suggestions for engagement are given. Secondly, the paper engages practically with the concept of bilingual educational testing and reveals how we dealt with it in the project. Research on the translation of a test used in the ABLE project is synthesised and the lessons learnt are discussed. It is argued that bilingual tests could contribute to a radical new way of approaching language in education in the context of South Africa.