Diversity

The fourth D refers to the changes in assessment.Due to the changes of students’composition，the changes we have recommended in an innovation of curriculum and pedagogy，changes in assessment and evaluation for CHBS and NCBS are inevitable.The core of making changes in assessment is the concept of diversity.In other words，we cannot rely on traditional forms of testing or examination to evaluate students’learning outcomes.Rather，a variety of unconventional assessment tasks should be employed to give a fair judgement on the achievement of both cohorts of CHBSand NCBS.

Orton(2008)explicitly stated that students who speak Chinese at home should be taught and assessed separately from those who learn it as a second or foreign language in a classroom.However，how to assess CHBS and NCBS remains unresolved.The lack of unified standard for learning outcomes for different student in Australian universities is the first problem confronting lecturers.The teaching objectives and expected learning outcomes for both CHBS and NCBS are totally depending on each university.A nationwide criterion for assessment is absent in CLT in Australian universities.At present，International Second Language Proficiency Ratings(ISLPR)，Common European Framework of Reference(CEFR)，and Chinese Proficiency Test(HSK)are the three most common standards utilized to assess language learners in Australia，plus the Credentialed Community Language Test，which is an assessment of candidate language abilities at a community level.However，none of them seem to be applicable to Australian universities.

In order to be fully aware of the progress which students are making at different stages，a number of formative assessments and a final formative assessment should be organised during the process of CLT in any courses.To avoid from any disadvantages or advantages to either CHBS or NCBS，these assessment tasks provide room to demonstrate their achievements in learning.In other words，a set of diversified assessment tasks are designed purposefully to give equal opportunities to CHBS and NCBS who are able to demonstrate their strength and overcome their weakness.It is also recommendable that the assessment tasks are not necessarily for individual leaners but for group work which engages both CHBS and NCBS.Perhaps one example from the Chinese Department in UC，Berkeley would shed light on this issue.Having finished learning the Chinese story Kong Yiji[孔乙己]，the senior level of the students（a mixed class of 20 CHBS and NCBS）were asked to form small groups with three to four people.Each group must be consisted of both CHBS and NCBS.They were asked to write a new story of Kong Yiji in the form of short play.The play was a writing assessment for the small group.Based on the play，the group was required to perform the play.The performance was the speaking assessment for individual students.By fulfilling this assessment task，the students’language competence and cultural awareness were evaluated in an overall way.Some works of the students were very creative，such as“American students visiting Kong’s hometown in China”and“Kong teaching Chinese in USA”which reflect the intercultural understandings of CHBSand NCBS.

All in all，we have discussed a“4D model”for innovation，which is expected to create a productive learning environment of CLT.Implementing this model requires joint efforts of universities，lecturers and students(CHBS and NCBS).This is not an easy task，but it is achievable if we are making changes of learning environment in order to cope with the rapid changes of students’composition.