Assessing bilingual historical narratives
Validating historical literacy descriptors aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23311486 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ana Cabrera-Zlotnick (0000-0002-4959-2313, Universidad Pablo de Olavide), Adrián Granados (0000-0001-7558-829X, Universidad Pablo de Olavide), Francisco Lorenzo (0000-0002-7710-0363, Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-29 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Applied Linguistics Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1868-6303 • E-ISSN: 1868-6311 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/applirev-2026-0117 |
| OpenAlex | W7171501401 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 32 |
The assessment of historical narratives, particularly in bilingual education contexts, presents unique challenges due to the intricate interplay of communicative and disciplinary competences. This study aims to provide a quantitative validation for B1 and B2 level CEFR-aligned descriptors developed to measure historical literacy competence by analyzing the reliability of the measures obtained for the raters and for the properties and functioning of the rating scale in which they were integrated. The paper thus explores how quantitative analysis of rater-mediated assessment contexts where rating scales are applied can contribute to the construction of validity arguments, backing the usage of the assessment instrument. Text fragments were extracted from various corpora of historical essays written by students in CLIL secondary education programs and from university students’ productions and were rated using key descriptors of historical literacy competence integrated into a 4-point analytic rating scale to conduct a post hoc analysis of the rating process. For this purpose, the Many-Facet Rasch Model (MFRM) statistical analysis was employed to examine how raters interact with the descriptors while assessing students’ performances. Results showcase that raters can reliably interpret the descriptors, which can be used to successfully differentiate between various historical literacy competence levels. This study may provide a more solid backing for the incorporation of integrated assessment instruments in bi- and multilingual educational contexts, aiming to increase equity and fairness in assessment practices.
Competence (human resources) · Item analysis · Item response theory · Literacy · Rasch model · Rating scale · Scale (ratio) · Test validity · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Multilingual Education and Policy · Second Language Learning and Teaching
Applying the Rasch Model
The Argument-Based Approach to Validation
A construct of cognitive discourse functions for conceptualising content-language integration in CLIL and multilingual education
Assessment of History, Mathematics and Science literacy in multilingual education with the Common European Framework of Reference
CLIL students’ production of cognitive discourse functions
An analysis of the use of cognitive discourse functions in English-medium history teaching at university
Validity evidence for an EIT as an assessment for Spanish heritage speakers and L2 learners
Assessments in CLIL
CLIL students’ definitions of historical terms
Teaching Disciplinary Literacy to Adolescents
Scaling descriptors for language proficiency scales
Assessing learners’ writing skills in a SLA study
Validation of rating processes within an argument-based framework
Constructing complex Cognitive Discourse Functions in higher education
Exploring Bases of Achievement in Content and Language Integrated Assessment in a Bilingual Education Program
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |