BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:18219-9c1a0f1947071a1c1a43876be85c18ae@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260413T010528Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260213T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260213T160000 SUMMARY:“Diagnostic Assessment as an Approach to Support Second and Foreign Lang uage Learning and Teaching – Past, Present, and Future” DESCRIPTION:\nInterest in assessment that supports learning has grown\, partly because of its potential for improving learning (e.g. Black &\ ; Wiliam 1998). However\, there is considerable variation in what such a ssessments are called (e.g. diagnostic\, formative\, assessment for lear ning)\, what their theoretical basis is\, and how they are implemented i n practice. This presentation focuses on the diagnostic assessment of se cond / foreign (L2) language skills\, which has become a lively area of research and development in the broader field of language assessment.\n\ nFirst\, Huhta will discuss similarities and differences between diagnos tic tests / assessments (DiagA) and other types or purposes of assessmen t such as proficiency and placement testing as well as other formative t ypes of assessment. The main part of his talk gives an account of the em ergence of DiagA in L2 as field of study\, its key developments and curr ent state. He will also offer some thoughts about how the field is likel y to evolve in the future and the research that is needed.\n\nHuhta will illustrate the developments in DiagA by describing three projects which also exemplify both the challenges and solutions in this field. Some of the ways to address the challenges involve the use of technologies (now adays artificial intelligence\, too)\, others rely on progress in concep tualizing DiagA. The first key project is DIALANG\, which began systemat ic work on DiagA in the late 1990s\, but which also pioneered other impo rtant developments in L2 assessment such as operationalizing the Common European Framework and aligning test results with it (e.g. Alderson 2005 ). The second project is Dialuki (2010-2013/15)\, a study that investiga ted how L2 reading and writing skills can be predicted with a range of l inguistic\, psycholinguistic\, motivational and background factors (e.g. Alderson et al. 2015). The third project\, DD-LANG\, exemplifies a prom ising avenue for L2 DiagA that combines it with dynamic assessment\, whi ch can expand the scope of diagnosed skills (e.g. Leontjev\, Poehner &am p\; Huhta 2025).\n\nAri Huhta is professor of language assessment at the Centre for Applied Language Studies\, University of Jyväskylä\, Finland . He has investigated diagnostic foreign/second language assessment\, co mputerised assessment\, self-assessment\, as well as the development of reading\, writing and vocabulary skills. He was involved in developing t he multilingual DIALANG online assessment and feedback system in the ear ly 2000s. He has co-authored two books on diagnosing L2 reading (2015) a nd writing (2024). He currently leads two projects: one on English as a foreign language and another on Finnish as a second language that both c ombine dynamic and diagnostic assessment and use artificial intelligence .\n\nFor more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/cla-ari-huhta/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Interest in ass essment that supports learning has grown, partly because of its potentia l for improving learning (e.g. Black & Wiliam 1998). However, there is considerable variation in what such assessments are called (e.g. diag nostic, formative, assessment for learning), what their theoretical basi s is, and how they are implemented in practice. This presentation focuse s on the diagnostic assessment of second / foreign (L2) language skills, which has become a lively area of research and development in the broad er field of language assessment.

First, Huhta will discuss similar ities and differences between diagnostic tests / assessments (DiagA) and other types or purposes of assessment such as proficiency and placement testing as well as other formative types of assessment. The main part o f his talk gives an account of the emergence of DiagA in L2 as field of study, its key developments and current state. He will also offer some t houghts about how the field is likely to evolve in the future and the re search that is needed.

Huhta will illustrate the developments in D iagA by describing three projects which also exemplify both the challeng es and solutions in this field. Some of the ways to address the challeng es involve the use of technologies (nowadays artificial intelligence, to o), others rely on progress in conceptualizing DiagA. The first key proj ect is DIALANG, which began systematic work on DiagA in the late 1990s, but which also pioneered other important developments in L2 assessment s uch as operationalizing the Common European Framework and aligning test results with it (e.g. Alderson 2005). The second project is Dialuki (201 0-2013/15), a study that investigated how L2 reading and writing skills can be predicted with a range of linguistic, psycholinguistic, motivatio nal and background factors (e.g. Alderson et al. 2015). The third projec t, DD-LANG, exemplifies a promising avenue for L2 DiagA that combines it with dynamic assessment, which can expand the scope of diagnosed skills (e.g. Leontjev, Poehner & Huhta 2025).

Ari Huhta is professor of language assessment at the Centre for Applied Language Studies, Univ ersity of Jyväskylä, Finland. He has investigated diagnostic foreign/sec ond language assessment, computerised assessment, self-assessment, as we ll as the development of reading, writing and vocabulary skills. He was involved in developing the multilingual DIALANG online assessment and fe edback system in the early 2000s. He has co-authored two books on diagno sing L2 reading (2015) and writing (2024). He currently leads two projec ts: one on English as a foreign language and another on Finnish as a sec ond language that both combine dynamic and diagnostic assessment and use artificial intelligence.

For more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/cla-a ri-huhta/

LOCATION:Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR