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Using Rubrics for Language Assessment

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DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6086-3.ch001

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Chapter 1
Using Rubrics for
Language Assessment
Laura E. Mendoza
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8649-8775
University of Texas at El Paso, USA

ABSTRACT
The use of rubrics for classroom assessment has been evolving rapidly during the last decades.
Unfortunately, because rubrics across language classrooms are only sometimes standardized, some may
provide a non-friendly language for students, which is useless for their linguistic development. In addition
to defining rubrics from an array of perspectives, the present chapter presents possible benefits linked
to the appropriate use of rubrics among emergent bilinguals. Shabani and Panahi highlight essential
benefits for students when presented with language assessment tools, such as rubrics, and the authors
use their observation for this chapter. It aims to highlight the importance of rubrics in the language
classroom in an effort for educators, evaluators, and policymakers to be more conscious when creating
and using rubrics.

INTRODUCTION

Assessing and, more importantly, addressing students’ learning can be challenging in any classroom.
Particularly in the language classroom, assessing students’ needs can represent additional challenges
given the many capabilities that, interposingly, are continuously present. It is relevant to remind the
reader that although the word ‘rubric’ is continuously used throughout the chapter, the concept is to be
mainly used in the language classroom context. Nevertheless, readers should be warned that the term
‘rubric’ is used today in arrayed contexts and practices. However, the focus of the chapter will remain as
an evaluative tool to assess students’ linguistic practices and knowledges. The aim of the present chapter
is to highlight the importance of rubrics in the language classroom in an effort for educators, evaluators,
and policy-makers to be more conscious when creating and using rubrics.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6086-3.ch001

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Using Rubrics for Language Assessment

BACKGROUND: DEFINING RUBRICS AND TYPES OF RUBRICS

The use of rubrics for classroom assessment has been evolving rapidly during the last decades. In educa-
tion, for instance, teachers always use rubrics even without noticing it. Jeong (2015) reminds us how the
use of rubrics, particularly in the language classroom, is of high value. For the purpose of the present
chapter, a rubric should be understood as presented by Dawson (2017, p. 349):

A rubric is a tool used to assess student work that usually includes Popham’s (1997) three essential
features: evaluative criteria, quality definitions for those criteria at particular levels, and a scoring
strategy. A design element is a particular variable, choice, or dimension that makes one rubric different
from another. For example, the specificity element is concerned with the differences between task-specific
and generic rubrics.

According to the author, “one rubric may use generic quality words (e.g., ‘good’ or ‘below standard’),
whereas another may explain in detail what quality looks like” (p. 348). This said the level of specificity
that a rubric may possess will serve as a guide for students, educators, and evaluators to gain a better
understanding of the course expectations.
Some educators unknowingly use mental rubrics (Quinlan, 2012), whereas others purposefully use
physical/digital rubrics. The author states: “Whether they know it or not, people create rubrics - guidelines
for decisions for evaluation and assessment- in their minds every day” (p.2). Quinlan (2012) continues,
“These mental rubrics help us to make decisions based on both our prior knowledge and current objec-
tives.” In our classrooms, we generally use rubrics with the presumption that these will ease the path for
students when trying to understand the expectations, components, objectives, and ways to be assessed
in a given course or assignment; we are continuously bringing opportunities for students, and ourselves,
to compare what it is good or not that good.
It has been evident that, particularly for students, rubrics in the language classroom can help them
successfully prove what they are expected to do linguistically if provided with details. Dawson (2017)
argues that there is a relevant variation amongst the level of detail provided in the quality section of
the rubrics; therefore, this opens room to having rubrics that can be helpful for students and evaluators,
whereas others need to be more specific. These distinctions will be thoroughly discussed later on as
part of the present chapter. Therefore, the use of rubrics in the language classroom can be beneficial to
demonstrate student success and for educators and evaluators to provide more detailed-oriented feedback,
promoting meaningful learning.
Unfortunately, because rubrics across language classrooms are not always standardized, some of
them may provide a non-friendly language for students, which is useless for their linguistic develop-
ment; likewise, many others provide a language that might be too vague to comply with institutions’
missions and objectives. Dawson (2017) highlights how the proliferation of the word ‘rubric’ has dealt
with varied changes and adaptations. However, simultaneously, it has yet to develop a shared complete
understanding of the term necessarily. For this reason, although many institutions require using rubrics
for varied assessments, these fluctuate, navigating the use of the term and using it in the way that best
benefits them.

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Using Rubrics for Language Assessment

Commonly Used Types of Rubrics

Rubrics can vary depending on many factors. In the educational world, this can vary, for example, con-
cerning the educational grade level, type of assignment, type of specificity, and type of subject, to name
a few. Nevertheless, although rubrics can be presented in varied forms and sizes, two distinguishable
elements are always present: They present performance levels, such as producing quality work, and those
of quality, usually ranking from below expectations to outstanding (Glass, 2004). Generally speaking,
rubrics tend to include three-to-six performance criteria, as these are genuinely manageable for the scorer
to remember (Wolf & Stevens, 2007).
Rubrics are, for instance, divided according to their performance or the quality they are presupposed
to assess, as previously mentioned. The performance factors can be general or written for a specific as-
signment. Quality levels can be numerical, in word form, or a combination of both (Glass, 2004, p. 17).
Some other rubrics can range according to their levels of precision when assessing. Commonly, many
other rubrics are based on the “original six-trait scoring guide developed by teachers for teachers through
the efforts of the Six-Trait Analytical Scoring Committee of the Beaverton, Oregon, School District. […]
The categories of the six traits are as follows: Ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency,
conventions” (Glass, 2004, p. 19).
These categories allow educators to quantify and therefore highlight the impact of the traits students
are commonly demonstrating when completing a task; with the use of these rubrics, educators are able to
quickly illustrate if students’ ideas were developed appropriately and if their tone of voice was adjusted to
the audience. In the language classroom, these categories can inform educators and students if language
was precisely used in terms of word choice. For example, equally important, these rubrics can facilitate
the dissemination of standard grammar conventions in a particular language or context. Research has
demonstrated that when using the six-traits rubric as an instruction and assessment tool, students show
higher performance, primarily in writing (Glass, 2004). In a similar fashion, other authors (Lee et al.,
2010) have noted that, generally, these traits’ scores tend to correlate among themselves.
Rubrics can also be distinguished as holistic or analytic. This chapter follows these distinctions
between a holistic and an analytic rubric, as presented by Stanley (2021). The author explains: “Just as
its name suggests, a holistic rubric looks at the whole picture. If a student is completing a performance
assessment, such as an essay, the evaluator would look at all aspects of the written piece and narrow all
of the criteria into a single grade” (Stanley, 2021, p. 37). As expected, these rubrics allow us as educa-
tors to look at the whole picture and score students in a faster manner. On the other hand, an analytical
rubric “allows the evaluator to show the exact areas in which students display strengths and areas in
which students display need for improvement” (Stanley, 2021, p. 39). Analytical rubrics, then, interact
with scorers in ways in which holistic rubrics would not be able to; analytical rubrics are, therefore,
all about the specifics that will help the student to recognize their faults and work thoroughly towards
improvements and successes. In short, holistic rubrics should be perceived as a summative assessment
as they provide information about what students can do well at a given point.
Alternatively, an analytic rubric should be perceived as a formative assessment, as these can dem-
onstrate the areas in which students need to work looking for improvement; something particular about
the analytic rubrics is that these conjointly provide feedback to educators, as they can easily observe
the areas that still need to be mastered as part of a given lesson. Stanley (2021) illustrates the previous
explanation as follows: “If a student writes a rough draft of the essay and the teacher uses a rubric to
evaluate it, the student might learn that, although he scored an A on grammar and spelling and a B on

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Using Rubrics for Language Assessment

content, his organization was very poor, resulting in a D: (p. 39). The alternation of rubrics in the language
classroom should be highly emphasized as emergent bilinguals can potentially benefit from feedback
and the constant revisiting of materials, presented, of course, in varied ways, in their classrooms; by
providing emergent bilinguals with a variation of rubrics, we can acknowledge equally their strengths
and weaknesses creating a safe space for them for learning and embracing a new language and culture.
In this way, emergent bilinguals will pose a pattern of having explicit explanations about how to perform
a task appropriately by receiving a rubric in a timely manner; but at the same time, we will also give
them the opportunity of learning from their different experiences with a variety of rubrics.
Additionally, Stevens and Levi (2013) take notice of the advantages of scoring rubrics by acknowl-
edging the following: “They allow for much greater individualization and flexibility in grading” (p. 79).
For this reason, when we, as educators, want to provide as much freedom as possible to our students,
scoring rubrics represents a good choice. Becker (2016) highlights that “scoring rubrics appeal to teach-
ers and students because they increase the transparency of teacher’s expectations regarding the criteria
for a quality performance, enhance students’ awareness of learning goals, and enable the provision of
feedback that can help students to identify strengths and weaknesses in their work” (p. 5). It is primarily
essential for the language educator to constantly keep in mind students’ learning goals since considering
the amplification of their linguistic repertoires -commonly scored in many language classrooms- should
not be the only learning goal to be considered; developing confidence while performing other tasks like
listening or speaking should also be considered an impactful objective. In the same way, learning to
self-correct and developing more complex grammatical structures should also be considered relevant
learning goals when scoring them.

MAIN FOCUS: WHY DO WE NEED RUBRICS IN

THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM?

Although providing a clear route for students’ understanding and success (Shabani & Panahi, 2020) is
not particular to language assessment, it is unquestionably a feature that must be taken into consideration
when creating and distributing them amongst students and evaluators. For this reason, using rubrics
appropriately for language testing is something that educators, evaluators, and policy-makers must con-
stantly consider when thinking about the language classroom and its assessments. Shabani and Panahi
(2020) highlight essential benefits for students when presented with language assessment tools, such as
rubrics; the authors mention that a rubric: “Helps learners understand raters’ and teachers’ expectations
better, judge and revise their own work more successfully, promote self-assessment of their learning,
and improve the quality of their writing task” (p.5). These benefits demonstrate in an observable way
how students’ linguistic practices and knowledges can improve during a specific period of time. For
this reason, the present chapter emphasizes the use of rubrics compared to other assessment tools since
rubrics generally may provide more objective and effective feedback for students.
Some authors have explicitly emphasized some benefits of using rubrics, or as they call it, having a
marking schema. For example, authors have mentioned that rubrics:

Give confidence and guidance to novice markers and help them become part of an assessment community
more quickly. They provide guidance for the experienced marker, who may have developed inaccurate
marking practices. They have some standardizing effects. They provide a public language and termi-

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Using Rubrics for Language Assessment

nology for assessment requirements. They make outcomes more transparent for students, and students
value them (Bloxham & Boyd, 2007).

Because emergent bilinguals heavily rely on the expectations language classroom rubrics may have
(Athon, 2019), it is advisable to provide them with the best assessment tools available. The author sug-
gests that whereas emergent bilinguals are constantly trying to replicate the categories of the rubrics
that are provided to them, emergent bilinguals have the tendency to implement similar structures and
patterns from the ones already pre-established in their language courses in the rest of the courses they
take in the future. It is remarkable to highlight that when creating standards, and therefore when creating
rubrics that are supposedly supporting such standards, language must be accessible not only to students
but also to their teachers. Glass (2004) constantly reminds us that when standards or rubrics possess not
an approachable language, both tend to be useless.
In spite of the fact that deciding whether or not to use an individualized rubric tends to be of choice
for educators, this should come with a warning that each specific assignment, primarily in the language
classroom, is addressing a specific area or skill; for this reason, the specificity a rubric may incorporate
tends to be more satisfying than only providing a generic one. Novice educators, for example, could
be tempted to exclusively use a generic rubric to assess all different assignments, which could quickly
raise validity and reliability concerns for more advanced educators. This, consequently, should be a call
for curriculum creators to provide more room for pre-service teachers to learn about the many different
types of rubrics available for different fields and, equally important, to learn about their advantages
when using them appropriately. Providing feedback with the use of a rubric in a language classroom can
increase students’ performance, as emergent bilinguals are constantly attending to feedback and looking
for corrections and revisions (Ene & Upton, 2014; Ene & Kosobucki, 2016). Standard written and oral
language conventions to be included in a rubric are sentence structure, grammar, punctuation and capi-
talization, spelling, organization, and content; nevertheless, we must adequately train pre-service teachers
and novice educators to think outside the box concerning the abovementioned conventions. Currently,
feedback must also include newer cultural conventions, cultural awareness, and more flexible linguistic
repertoires, which might not necessarily be represented in a standard pre-made rubric.
Glass (2004) highlights that whenever we are using a pre-made rubric, it is essential to carefully
review the language used to verify if it actually fits the needs of the targeted students in your own
classroom. Equally important, she highlights that when creating rubrics for a program, all should have
an even understanding of the language being used to assess students. Holding several discussions with
interdisciplinary colleagues, the question regarding assessment in language courses always remains the
same: If it is not objective, how do you assess your students? As it has been severely discussed by many
(Ayhan & Türkyılmaz, 2015; Glass, 2004; Khanmohammad & Osanloo, 2009), assessing language can
sometimes be objective and subjective some other times. Glass (2004) notes, for instance: “One teacher’s
impression of a capable job at a powerful climax might be another’s advanced version: (p. 15). For this
reason, the implementation of rubrics, particularly in the language classroom, should be heavily addressed.
In this sense, it is advised that every language educator recurrently occurs in calibration sessions where
they, along with other language educators and supervisors, can conjointly facilitate assessment practices
utilizing the rubrics to be implemented in their classrooms. The author further warns the reader about
the importance of balancing just the right amount of text when developing a rubric. Otherwise, rubrics
can deviate students’ and evaluators’ impressions.

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Using Rubrics for Language Assessment

Conversely, when vaguely or up to no information is provided, students and evaluators can easily
follow objectively what has been required or intended. Therefore, creating rubrics that can actually be
successful for emergent bilinguals and, more importantly, which include the most appropriate conven-
tions for them should be a task that requires time, patience, and a significant amount of collaboration; the
collaborations, as mentioned earlier, should not include collaborations amongst colleagues exclusively,
but no less important, should be the collaboration between educators and students.
As suggested by different authors (Glass, 2004; Stanley, 2021), educators can take a more collabora-
tive approach when allowing their students to generate new rubrics with them. Accordingly, because the
language classroom usually represents an area where minoritized students are beginning their education
endeavors, it is advisable to challenge them to create essential standards collectively. In this scenario, a
way to share the voices of the emergent bilinguals in these classrooms is to emphasize the importance of
language mechanics and simultaneously the relevance of students’ identities. Pappas, Zecker, and Zecker
(2001) note: “Collaborative classroom interactions occur when teachers move away from teaching-as-
transmission approaches to ones in which they share power and authority with their students” (p. 7).
This should be highly considered in the language classroom, where many students may sometimes feel
powerless given their social, cultural, and linguistic experiences. Additionally, guiding our emergent
bilinguals to learn how to collaborate to achieve success can help them remediate the above mentioned
circumstances.
One possibility when taking this approach of rubric-creation with our own students in the language
classroom would be to clearly model sentence patterns to be used in order to create the expected rubric.
Glass (2004) recommends: “When you take this approach, though, have a keen sense of what you expect
in the writing assignment, and prod the students while they brainstorm criteria to make sure all essential
elements are included” (p. 23). Following a student-centered learning approach, like guiding emergent
bilinguals during their brainstorming sessions, can enhance students’ willingness to practice the target
language voluntarily and simultaneously can also provide insights for us as language educators better
to support struggling emergent bilinguals (Unin, 2016). Stanley (2021) highlights how incorporating
non-traditional activities in the language classroom, such as the co-creation of materials and rubrics,
can serve as a motivational tool. The author states: “Rubrics can be used to teach students to track their
own growth, making them self-reflective learners. They could have the rubric ahead of time and then
be able to take their work and progress and assess their level of understanding and mastery” (p. 32).
For this reason, it is highly suggested that educators take different routes when trying to empower their
students. For emergent bilinguals, helping them to become reflective learners can have a tremendous
positive impact as they may feel ashamed of continuously having to ask the same questions, or very
similar questions, in an effort to follow what a lesson might require from them entirely.
Authors (Anthon, 2019; Stanley, 2021) have highlighted how positively impactful it is for educators
to allow students to create or co-create their own rubrics. Consequently, letting students help educators
in the development of their own learning rubrics is beneficial for students learning processes. Stevens
and Levi (2013) note:

Integrating rubric construction into classroom teaching can: (1) prevent misunderstandings and misinter-
pretations before they affect student work; (2) increase student awareness of themselves as ‘stakeholders’
in the educational process, which, in turn, results in greater student involvement in the tasks assigned;
(3) cut down your workload by letting your students do some of it (Stevens & Levi, 2013, p. 49).

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Using Rubrics for Language Assessment

By following such an approach, emergent bilinguals are taught to collaborate responsibly. In this
sense, emergent bilinguals are offered opportunities to elaborate and reflect on their diversified language
learning processes. Meanwhile, by collaborating with others, educators or classmates, emergent bilin-
guals are able to integrate different elements in their language learning which can be later displayed,
for instance, in a written or spoken format (Bradley, Lindström, & Rystedt, 2010). Interestingly, we are
not only supporting approaches that are closely related to the experiences emergent bilinguals will be
having outside of the classroom by providing authentic collaboration practices, but conjointly, we are
also lightening our workload by creating more responsible students.
As Bloxham and Boyd (2007) observe, “Feedback is arguably the most important aspect of the as-
sessment process in raising achievement” (p. 103). Consequently, by using rubrics constructively to
provide feedback, optimistically timely feedback, educators can encourage positive motivation amongst
students and, at the same time, can help students move forward in their learning processes as they count
with effective written feedback which can strengthen their opportunities for improvement. Especially in
language classrooms, the possibilities for assessments may vary drastically depending not only on the
level of proficiency of the emergent bilinguals, but also their level of education, level of engagement,
and even their cultural backgrounds. For this reason, the constant use of rubrics in a language classroom
may help emergent bilinguals to constantly mobilize their diversified knowledges to continue scaffolding
their opportunities for learning and success.

Validity and Reliability

Authors have noted (Bloxham & Boyd, 2007; Stevens & Levi, 2013) the reliability and validity of the
rubrics used in a classroom are continuously impacted not only by the assessment criteria stated but by
the actual marker. For this reason, it is advisable to work collaboratively to practice how students are
to be assessed and, conjointly, how rubrics are to be interpreted and used to assess them. Stevens and
Levi (2013) note that rubrics constantly change. Because of these changes mentioned above, rubrics are
also becoming better and more well-adjusted to the needs of a given classroom. Because of the many
specificities that a language classroom requires, working effectively towards the constant creation and
modification of rubrics that can be easily adapted to the needs of emergent bilinguals will continue sup-
porting the improvement, validity, and reliability of such rubrics. Bloxham and Boyd (2007) address how
important it is to provide rubrics that not only validly assess students but, more importantly, transparently
are designed to match their learning outcomes as their programs and institutions have observed these.
Like highlighted by other authors (Athon, 2019; Glass, 2004), presenting information in rubrics using
a language that the students do not welcome, may diverge their interest in reading the rubric leading to
obtaining a less satisfactory accomplishment.
Jeong (2015) notes that although the use of rubrics, specifically for language assessment, has increased
potentially during the last years, the question remains as to up to what point the users/evaluators are true
to their meaning; in other words, how they accurately use rubrics in comparison to other users/evaluators
in their same position. Jeong (2015) reminds us of the relevance of using rubrics appropriately because
students may be concerned about how they have been graded. Therefore, just like students’ knowledges
must be assessed accurately and reliably, at the same time, rubrics must also be accurate and reliable.
Some other authors (Jeong, 2015; Turley & Gallagher, 2008; Wilson, 2007) also highlight the importance
of using the rubrics appropriately and having appropriate training to use them efficiently. Although the
present chapter focuses on the relevance of using rubrics for language assessment, it would be advisable

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Using Rubrics for Language Assessment

to consider using a rubric not in isolation but in conjunction with other assessment tools to exalt their
validity and reliability.
In order to provide a more accurate, and thus objective, assessment in the language classroom, Glass
(2004) recommends the following: (1) To create and revise rubrics; (2) to score student work with col-
leagues; (3) to collect student anchor papers; (4) to avoid bias; and (5) to use student scores to inform
instruction. It is relevant for educators and curriculum developers to incorporate the appropriate use
of rubrics in the language classroom. Most importantly, they have to ensure that such rubrics are used
without bias and closely follow students’ actual work. By considering the collection of students’ samples,
we are not only empowering their learning processes, but concertedly, we are also practicing scoring
assignments, and their corresponding rubrics, that are authentic and of a higher value for our own pro-
grams. On the one hand, we are empowering students as we are providing them with the opportunity of
becoming, for instance, the ideal writer. On the other hand, we are collectively potentializing our op-
portunities as language educators to clearly provide observable samples of the strengths or weaknesses
the lessons we are giving are producing in our students. By keeping these samples and scoring them
collectively constantly, we will soon feel more comfortable navigating the rubrics that are required to
assess our students in the language classroom properly.

Language-Specific-Skills and Rubrics

Even though using rubrics in the language classroom has been becoming a quite often practice among
language educators, finding rubrics that are especially targeted to assess a specific language skill is not
as easy; for the most part, research and resources are developed to gain a better understanding of the
writing learning processes of emergent bilinguals. Nevertheless, other skills such as listening, reading
or speaking are relegated. Assessing writing proficiency, as discussed previously, has been growing
significantly in the last years, as emergent bilinguals are expected to learn how to appropriately undergo
specific writing conventions, particularly in English. Shabani and Panahi (2020) argue that: “Learners
are generally expected to produce a piece of text so that raters can evaluate the overall quality of their
performance using a variety of different scoring systems including holistic and analytic scoring, which
are the most common and acceptable ways of assessing essays” (p. 3). Because writing is considered as
the most crucial skill in language learning, and also in a variety of other fields, the implementation of
the use of rubrics is a well-established practice which is constantly looking for quality in all its respects.
Furthermore, considering that writing is a self-regulated learning process (Hawthorne & Pribesh,
2017), the constant implementation of rubrics to provide detailed feedback for emergent bilinguals should
be a constant in the language classroom as a means to help in students’ writing development. Hawthorne,
Bol, and Pribesh (2017) note: “Well-developed, intentionally designed rubrics provide students with
evaluation criteria and the opportunity to think about their writing and to compare and evaluate their
success against identified standards” (p. 4). Consequently, by providing enough encounters in our lan-
guage classrooms where students are exposed to the use of rubrics we can help them apply more effective
writing strategies that will conjointly help them to move forward in their writing learning processes.
Additionally, by providing emergent bilinguals with rubrics that clearly represent what is highly valued
by many institutions (e.g., correct spelling), we can help students in our language classroom to learn
how to better self-regulate the skills that are required to become a successful writer (Andrade, 2000;
Saddler & Andrade, 2004).

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Using Rubrics for Language Assessment

Even though speaking is not as commonly assessed as writing, it has becoming more evident that its
relevance in the process of language development plays a crucial role; for this reason, finding rubrics
that help us as language educators to evaluate better and provide timely, consistent, and relevant feed-
back to emergent bilinguals must be kept in mind. In regards to speaking rubrics, Pineda (2014) notes:
“Performance assessments contribute to measuring students’ abilities to respond to real-language tasks,
value students’ true language abilities, and reflect on how students will perform in future real-life lan-
guage situations” (p. 186). However, using rubrics to assess speaking tends to be more time-consuming
in comparison to assessing other language skills. In order to convey a truly understandable meaning
when speaking, emergent bilinguals must be able to understand and provide a social and contextual
appropriate meaning, possess phonological and phonetic awareness, and follow the commonalities of
speech; assessing speaking through the use of rubrics can provide a straightforward way for educators and
emergent bilinguals to fully understand the speaking objectives to be accomplished in a given assignment
or course, and at the same time, can also help to evaluate students’ vocal varieties, ways to articulate,
preferred languaging practices, and nonverbal cues (Schreiber, Paul, & Shibley, 2012). Rubrics assessing
speaking then help us as language educators to become better at assessing this skill by providing us, and
emergent bilinguals, with opportunities to gain understanding of the messages they are creating when
presenting information through their oral repertoires. The authors finalize their thoughts by suggest-
ing that “the pedagogical and institutional advantages of descriptive rubrics suggests that they may be
better candidates for providing a reliable way to assess public speaking proficiency for both expert and
nonexpert evaluators” (p. 212). As it has been evaluated throughout the chapter, certain types of rubrics
come more handy when trying to assess certain skills, assignments, or courses over others.
Reading as a receptive skill, however, could be more well-represented when looking for evidence
about the efficiency of rubrics. This does not come as a surprise since reading is a mental activity which,
therefore, must be evaluated through other language skills like speaking or writing (Blaz, 2001). Some
observable behaviors that can be identified easily when trying to assess reading in a language classroom
could be for example underlying unfamiliar vocabulary and providing definitions or translations for such
unfamiliar words; when working with unfamiliar vocabulary in the language classroom, we should avoid
preventing students from only using the target language since language practices are to be constantly
mobilized and expanded instead of remain static (Garcia & Wei, 2015). When assessing reading, rubrics
in the language classroom can, for example, illustrate the level of achievement an emergent bilingual may
have in terms of reading comprehension (Leist, Woolwine, & Bays, 2012). In addition, reading rubrics
can help us as language educators to better evaluate more complex reading tasks, like their progression
when being able to evaluate, critique, or predict while reading (Mijušković, 2014). Other aspects that
can be also beneficial when assessing reading through the use of rubrics are phonological awareness,
recognition of lexical patterns, ability to make inferences and connections, and last but not least, ability
to provide background information. Because reading is a scaffolding skill to be developed constantly, it
is recommended to use varied rubrics but in a constant manner, that way reading skills can be evaluated
from an array of perspectives.
Unfortunately, the scarcity of research in relation to cultural bias and its direct relation to assessment
(Bloxham & Boyd, 2007) may still put us in a difficult position as language educators. The authors
highlight that “there is evidence that different types of assignment or examination differentially impact
on international students’ ability to demonstrate their learning” (p. 152). Therefore, in order to promote
a more inclusive and equitable type of rubric in the language classroom, educators, curriculum creators,
and more importantly, assessment creators, must provide clear expectations for all given assignments;

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Using Rubrics for Language Assessment

similarly, they should consider that ethnic differences may also impact students’ understanding of some
other concepts such as plagiarism, leading to uninformed practices when completing an assignment. It
is then important to finely discuss with students any language used in a given rubric that might be dis-
ruptive, vague, or biased. As previously mentioned, when providing standards and rubrics for students,
language must be as accessible and clear as possible; otherwise, we are not only accumulating checklists
that are unattainable and uninformative. To diminish cultural-bias, Kim and Zabelina (2015) suggest
staying away from standardized testing and consider instead other alternative assessments which give
more room to creativity. The authors highlight how even those students who might look acculturated
may also suffer from cultural bias. Consequently, language educators should be really self-critical when
deciding how to assess students to avoid any cultural bias.
Based on Inoue (2015), Athon (2019, p. 79) states:

Inoue discusses his use of grading contracts in his first-year composition courses where the letter grade
values labor over any single writing product. Students, regardless of writing ability, must regularly at-
tend class and complete all assignments to earn a high grade. By acknowledging the labor of writing as
the act of learning—rather than a single essay privileging a white language variety—Inoue argues that
we can lessen assimilation to a dominant discourse (Athon, 2019, p. 79).

Making decisions about what should have a heavier weight when assessing emergent bilinguals can
represent a challenge. Following Inoue’s (2015) observations, language educators, as well as policy
makers, should carefully address, and more importantly acknowledge, the many steps involved in learn-
ing for an emergent bilingual. For this reason, we, as language educators, should purposefully consider
many alternatives in our own classrooms that instead of continuing to privilege dominant discourses, can
provide more supportive practices for our students. Added to this, providing students with clear expec-
tations by the constant provision of rubrics will leverage their learning processes as students can learn
to appreciate the value of such rubric; the constant dissemination of rubrics in the language classroom
which clearly replicates the labor they are constantly involved in, and not necessary just the product,
will provide emergent bilinguals with additional tools that will guide them to freely show their agency
teaching them how capable of learning they already are.
Stanley (2021) clearly states many advantages that using rubrics specifically created by the educator
to assess a particular class may entail; for instance, because educators know students’ proficiency levels
and needs, they can customize what could be more beneficial for their own students. In this sense, by
promoting that educators create their own rubrics, they can better help their own students to scaffold their
learning processes. This applies particularly to the language classroom where students are constantly
challenged by many other factors, in addition to the content. Stanley (2021) pays particular attention
to the use of rubrics to assess authentic experiences, which hopefully in today’s language classroom
are constantly occurring. The author continues “Advanced students need to be challenged more, while
struggling students might need more scaffolding to succeed. Rubrics are naturally scaffolded. Because
there are different levels of performance, if you have a class with a wide spectrum of student ability,
you could use the rubric as a way to differentiate” (p. 29). With that, assessing emergent bilinguals by
using rubrics accurately can diminish having students who are not only poorly supported academically,
but who could be more educationally successful.

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Using Rubrics for Language Assessment

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

It is unquestionable that rubrics will only be useful for students if educators know how to work with such
rubrics. For emergent bilinguals particularly, special attention is to be paid to the practices (linguistic,
contextual, and social) that are addressed, privileged, incorporated, and taught, when providing them
with a rubric. Consequently, the chapter aims to make a call to curriculum developers and creators of
faculty development to continue providing opportunities to educators and future educators to learn deeply
about the usages and benefits of rubrics in the language classroom. It is worth reminding the reader that,
many times, rubrics are used in isolation when assessing language; nevertheless, conjoint assessing tools
could help students’ learning processes.
Many authors (Athon, 2019; Becker, 2016; Panadero & Jonsson, 2013; Reddy & Andrade, 2010;
Stevens & Levi, 2013; Wolf & Stevens, 2007) address the importance of involving emergent bilinguals
in the creation and co-creation of rubrics for the language classroom. Becker (2016) states: “While
students are often introduced to a scoring rubric prior to or at the end of a writing assignment, they are
rarely involved in the development and application of scoring rubrics” (p. 4). Nevertheless, the advan-
tages of collaborating with our own students to create and co-create rubrics are numerous. For example,
by co-creating rubrics with our students, they may be able to internalize their knowledge better as they
become self-aware of what they are expected to learn (Fraile, Panadero, & Pardo, 2017). In the same
way, co-creating rubrics with our students may enhance the empathy educators are able to establish
with students, but most importantly, this practice may create a sense of ownership from the students’
side (Joseph, Rickett, Northcote, & Christian, 2020) learning how to promote their own voice (Fraile,
Panadero, & Pardo, 2017). In this sense, the implementation of this strategy would alternatively provide
educators with an assessment tool which is fully understandable and transparent for the students, and
additionally, which will lead students to use their own voice.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

One evident disadvantage of the current research on rubrics for language assessment is the limited
literature that can be found on assessing language skills other than writing. It would be worth it, how-
ever, to continue researching all language skills equally to provide more options for educators while
assessing. Another possible contribution could be to research the benefits of using rubrics compared
to other assessing tools. Equally important, research contributing to the dissemination and experiences
of educators and students as they collaboratively co-create rubrics would be of value. Researching the
impact of digital rubrics versus paper-based rubrics could also be beneficial when making choices in
our language classrooms.

CONCLUSION

Although the raters’ knowledge when using a rubric appropriately has not, to the author’s knowledge,
been widely researched in comparison to other elements, research particularly to language assessment
has highly contributed to the features that should be tested in language; these features are mostly relevant
for writing, but can be used to assess other language components; Shabani and Panahi (2020) included

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Using Rubrics for Language Assessment

the following elements for assessment: Content, organization, cohesion and coherence, vocabulary and
grammar, and language and mechanics (p. 7). As previously mentioned, although these are mostly valued
and used to assess writing, other language abilities can also be assessed in a similar fashion.
As it has been revisited during the chapter, the level of specificity provided as part of a given ru-
bric is commonly mandated by the educator or the curriculum creator. In this sense, although having
a general rubric can serve various purposes in a class, it should be evident by now that this will not be
as beneficial as providing a less general rubric. On the other hand, having task-based rubrics provide
more specifics, and therefore, allow students to become familiar with the expectations promptly. Fur-
thermore, task-based rubrics provide a more ample panorama when trying to track back what was not
accomplished when completing a task; this way, educators can reinforce what did not go that well in a
lesson, but conjointly, students can also become more responsible for their own learning by becoming
easily aware of what they can still improve as part of their learning process. We must remember at any
point that avoiding cultural bias, for instance when providing rubrics to students, will promote a more
inclusive environment for our emergent bilinguals.
Furthermore, Brookhart and Chen (2015, p.363) remind us: “teachers or post-secondary faculty should
have professional development in using rubrics and in coaching students to use rubrics, and pre-service
teachers should have training in these matters, as well”. For this reason, this chapter intends to further
the understanding of the value of rubrics in the classroom, more specifically, the value of a rubric in a
language classroom. More importantly, the chapter looks to provide evidence of the current need for
educators, language educators for the most part, to be appropriately trained to create and use rubrics in
their classrooms. For this reason, the current chapter not only provides general distinctions among the
different types of rubrics that we have available as educators, but also, it provides specifics in relation
to rubrics directly assessing the core language skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). As a
concluding thought, the present chapter looked to contribute to gaining a deeper understanding of some
of the most common types of rubrics used for language assessment as well as their benefits when using
them appropriately.

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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Core Language Skills: The current chapter constantly refers to the core language skills when pre-
senting certain benefits of the use of rubrics. The core language skills included here are reading, writing,
speaking, and listening; nevertheless, the understanding of culture and cultural backgrounds are also
constantly addressed as part of the aforementioned core language skills.
Dominant Discourses: As part of the present chapter, dominant discourses include primarily the use
of Academic English, and/or Standard English. These discourses can also refer to the use of Academic
Languages or Standard Languages.
Emergent Bilinguals: For the purposes of the present chapter, the term emergent bilinguals is pre-
ferred over other well-known terms, such as language learner, as the first one provides a more inclusive
way of presenting students. Emergent bilinguals are to be understood as those students who are in the
constant process of acquiring one or more languages.
Evaluators: People providing an evaluation when using a rubric. The chapter uses the terms scorer
and evaluator interchangeably. In this context tend to be educators or Teaching Assistants.
Rubric: A rubric in the present chapter is understood as an assessment tool, primarily targeted to
the assessment of language and language conventions.
Scorers: People providing a score to a given rubric; people using a rubric to score students. Scorers
in this context tend to be educators or Teaching Assistants.
Task-Based Rubrics: Rubrics that are looking specifically to assess certain tasks (in the language
classroom for the purposes of the chapter).

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