Co-Constructed Rubrics for Languages for Specific Purposes Assessment: Enhancing Student Engagement

Implementing student-involved assessments in the context of languages for specific purposes (LSP) curricula necessitates collaboration among students, language instructors, and domain experts, due to the interdisciplinary nature of LSP. This article presents the design of a research-informed series of assessment rubrics used to evaluate tasks completed in an undergraduate Business Chinese course, including practicing job interviews, organizing multilingual community events, and delivering business proposals to domain experts. As students progressed through these performance-based assessments, the series sequentially increased students’ involvement with rubric “co-construction” alongside the language instructor and domain experts. Students moved through the stages of being recipients, contributors, and finally creators of rubrics. The assessment series incorporated students’ self- and peer-evaluations as well as self-reflections to further enhance student involvement. Throughout the assessment series, the LSP instructor served as the director and facilitator to provide crucial guidance. This article summarizes the strengths and challenges of the LSP assessment series, along with suggestions for further applications.