Exploring sustainable language assessment through a teacher-learner practitioner inquiry

This Exploratory Practice inquiry investigates the sustainable use of language portfolios as an alternative assessment strategy. As a form of practitioner research, it engages with the nexus between research and practice in language education, demonstrating how inquiry grounded in practice can help bridge gaps between theoretical insights and classroom learning in sustainable ways. Conducted within a university Italian language program, the inquiry explores a redesign of assessment activities to promote Assessment as Learning, in alignment with the core principles of sustainable development. Through collaborative teacher–student dialogue, the inquiry addresses two interconnected puzzles: the disconnect between classroom learning and the language portfolio, and the nature of learner engagement with assessment tasks. The findings suggest that open-ended, multimodal tasks grounded in translanguaging pedagogy enabled learners to draw on their full semiotic repertoire, fostering meaning-making and reflective learning. Learners valued the portfolio's flexibility, autonomy, and personalized feedback, highlighting its role in reducing exam anxiety and supporting well-being. However, systemic challenges, such as time constraints and performativity pressures, limited the portfolio's full alignment with sustainable pedagogical aims. The inquiry concludes that language portfolios have strong potential to support sustainable, inclusive, and critical assessment practices, particularly when pedagogical design is shaped through bottom-up practitioner inquiry.