LTRC Seminar: Challenges for Language Assessment in Multilingual Sweden
Presenter: Dr Gunlög Sundberg
Both Australia and Sweden are highly multicultural societies with several languages used at home and in society. Around a quarter of the populations were born in other countries, in Australia 28.5% and in Sweden 19% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, ABS; Statistics Sweden, SCB).
In this talk, I will discuss and exemplify multilingual and second language assessment in education and for work places in the Swedish context. For migrant children, it is mandatory to assess literacy skills in their best language before they start their education. For migrant adults, language assessment on work related skills is increasingly being developed. What future challenges can we see if multilingual as well as professional resources among migrants are to be acknowledged in language assessment?
Dr Gunlög Sundberg: Gunlög Sundberg is a senior lecturer of Swedish as a second language in the Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism at Stockholm University. Her research interests are language assessment, interactional sociolinguistics and the multilingual workplace. She is visiting the University of Melbourne in a new project called Transnational Professionals in Higher Education and in Research: sharing the Australian and Swedish experience of language assessment of an internationalized work force of regulated professions. |
Date: Monday December 2nd
Time: 11 am - 12 pm
Venue: Room 407, Babel building, University of Melbourne