Embracing multimodality to overhaul assessment of English for Academic Purposes: task design and validation

In response to the increasing importance of multimodal communication in the academic target language use (TLU) domain and the expanding construct of English for academic purposes (EAP) skills, the current study proposes a multimodal EAP test. The study consists of three stages: (i) construct definition, (ii) design of a digital multimodal test, and (iii) empirical validation. The research questions address the extent to which the new test design reflects the construct of multimodal EAP skills in relation to two aspects: language functions (as evidenced in test takers’ performance) and the perspectives of test takers and examiners. The findings showed that 79% of the target multimodal EAP language functions were observed in the dataset. This indicates that multimodality can be successfully operationalised in EAP assessment with a cumulative, thematically-linked multimodal test design. The new design goes beyond what is typically operationalised by traditional independent skill-based tests and/or linear integrated language tests. The observation checklist developed can be used to help indicate the construct elicited by multimodal EAP assessments. Implications of the findings for the operationalisation of multimodal EAP constructs in large-scale assessment are discussed.