Given the exponential growth in the popularity of early foreign language programs, coupled with an emphasis of evidence-based instruction, assessing young learners’ (YLs) foreign language abilities has moved to center stage. This article canvasses how the field of assessing young learners of foreign languages has evolved over the past two decades. The review offers insights into how and why the field has developed, how constructs have been defined and operationalized, what language proficiency frameworks have been used, why children were assessed, what aspects of their foreign language proficiency have been assessed, who was involved in the assessment, and how the results have been used. By surveying trends in foreign language (FL) and content-based language learning programs involving children between the ages of 3 and 14, the article highlights research into assessment of and for learning, and critically discusses areas such as large-scale assessments and proficiency examinations, comparative and experimental studies, the impact of assessment, teachers’ beliefs and assessment practices, young learners’ test-taking strategies, age-appropriate tasks, alternative and technology-mediated assessment, as well as game-based assessments. The final section of the article highlights where more research is needed, thus outlining potential future directions for the field.

中文翻译：

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评估年轻学习者的外语能力

鉴于早期外语课程的受欢迎程度呈指数增长，再加上强调循证教学，评估年轻学习者 (YL) 的外语能力已成为中心舞台。本文探讨了评估年轻外语学习者的领域在过去二十年中的发展历程。该审查提供了有关该领域如何以及为何发展的见解，如何定义和实施结构，使用了哪些语言能力框架，为什么要评估儿童，评估了他们外语能力的哪些方面，谁参与了评估，以及如何使用结果。通过调查涉及 3 至 14 岁儿童的外语 (FL) 和基于内容的语言学习计划的趋势，的和为了学习，并批判性地讨论了诸如大规模评估和能力考试、比较和实验研究、评估的影响、教师的信念和评估实践、年轻学习者的考试策略、适合年龄的任务、替代和技术等领域。中介评估，以及基于游戏的评估。文章的最后一部分强调了需要更多研究的地方，从而概述了该领域潜在的未来方向。