A scoping review of literature in multilingual assessment in higher education

Bibliographic Data

ID11635615
AuthorsMarella Therese Tiongson (University of Copenhagen), Marella Tiongson (University of Copenhagen), Sanne Vammen Larsen (0000-0001-7731-9296, University of Copenhagen), Sanne Larsen (0000-0001-6062-2838, University of Copenhagen), Joyce Kling (0000-0002-8491-4701, Lund University), Slobodanka Dimova (0000-0002-0017-6255, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author)
Year2026
Pages1-22
Publication date2026-02-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0143-4632 • E-ISSN: 1747-7557
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01434632.2026.2624564
OpenAlexW7128744459
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited46

Recent research regarding internationalized higher education has recognized that although English is commonly used as the medium of instruction, students and teachers are highly multilingual. While there have been calls to transcend the limitations of being English-centric, the need to reconceptualize assessment practices to cater to the needs of multilingual learners has received much less attention. This scoping review synthesizes 28 existing theoretical and empirical studies on multilingual assessment in higher education, identifying the focus areas of the literature. Findings were categorized into the following themes: (1) bibliometric characteristics of the included studies (2) theoretical underpinnings; (3) operationalizations of the theoretical models of multilingualism in the included studies; and (4) the advantages and disadvantages of multilingual assessment and stakeholder perspectives. The review also identifies areas that have been under-researched, highlighting the need for future research to develop more multilingual assessments that evaluate content knowledge, consider more multilingual contexts and languages outside of English, and bridge the gap between research on multilingual assessment that has been conducted in primary and secondary schools and higher education

Bridge (graph theory · Empirical research · Higher education · Language proficiency · Multilingual Education · Multilingualism · Stakeholder · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Second Language Learning and Teaching · Student Assessment and Feedback

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access