Assessing Multilingual Learners: Global Findings Informing Research Needs in Estonia

Abstract

The article establishes the research needs regarding the assessment of multilingual learners (MLs) in Estonia in relation to the advances made in the field abroad, keeping in mind the changing Estonian schooling context (transition from Estonian/Russian-medium education to Estonian-only medium education, i.e. a situation where the students’ schooling language is Estonian). The article identifies MLs as a heterogeneous group whose assets (e.g., multilingual access to information) as well as hurdles in the assessment process of studying via a foreign language/L2 (comprehension of instructions, managing time, responding to tasks, etc.) have increasingly been the focus of educational research abroad. With regard to the similarly heterogeneous Estonian MLs, virtually no research is available about the ML assessment participants and processes here. Research needs are then proposed with regard to Estonian ML’s assets, teachers’ ML assessment practices, ML behavior during assessment, ML assessment tools, and ML assessment frameworks.