Fair approaches to assessment and plagiarism for multilingual learners

The principles of universal design for learning (UDL) enable us to develop strategies that support multilingual international students alongside all other students, rather than designing courses or making accommodations for them as a “special case”.

Universal design focuses on the needs of diverse learners and flexibility in curriculum design from the start. In relation to issues such as assessment and plagiarism, strategies for working with multilingual students, for whom English is a second language, are in fact good teaching strategies for all students.

Fair and transparent assessment for multilingual students

Universal design principles include fair, valid and transparent means of assessment. Drawing on the universal design principle of various means of expression, multiple opportunities can and should exist for assessment. Of course, these assessment techniques and any rubrics should meet the course learning goals and align with classroom teaching. That is, students should not be assessed on material that is not included or taught in the course.

In the writing classroom, these multiple avenues of expression mean that students can choose from a set of topics and present their papers in multiple ways, including digital formats and designs.

Choice and freedom of expression come partly from how prompts are designed. Open-ended prompts allow students to write in their disciplines or areas of expertise. Some students prefer a more structured assignment, while others wish for more freedom; it is helpful to offer both highly structured ideas for writing, with examples to follow, and to allow the flexibility for students to depart from examples and create their own prompts.

A universal design for learning approach to assessment allows students to write from their strengths or interests. Another important way that freedom of expression enhances assessment is through scaffolding of assignments.

• Resource collection: putting feedback at the heart of assessment
• Assessing your assessment: creating inclusive and meaningful assignments
• Resource collection: designing assessments to support deeper learning

Scaffolding these assignments and providing support and modelling are crucial. There can be multiple ways to provide support for these assignments, such as instructor feedback, writing centre appointments, flexible office hours and collaborative work with other students.

If students write multiple preliminary drafts, with feedback and revision, they have more opportunities to succeed. They also become better readers and writers as they reflect on their writing. This practice also mirrors most real-world writing processes, where colleagues review each other’s work regularly.

It is helpful to provide students with assessment rubrics on which to base their dialogues and comments. As students practise commenting on their own and each other’s drafts, they inhabit the space of author, editor, reader and grader.

How are these writing projects graded? If students are writing to their strengths, in their areas of expertise and design abilities, then we can level the playing field by “counting” all of these designs in the grade. For instance, we can include presentation format along with content. International students may have strong graphic design abilities but may be behind the native-English speaking students in terms of vocabulary or grammatical ability; yet all of these skills might contribute to the grade. Although grammatical errors will likely appear with more frequency in multilingual writing, we can evaluate all students by the same standards if we focus on larger rhetorical concerns covered in class, as a general practice.

These universal design approaches allow all students to succeed by giving students the opportunity to collaborate and help each other using their strengths. Clear, written, transparent grading policies, not points to add up for small tasks, enhance the learning process.

Complexities of plagiarism among multilingual students

When faculty express concerns about international students, the subject of plagiarism often arises. The number of international students reported for honour code violations often exceeds those of domestic students, although many do not intentionally cheat.

A common practice in some countries is to memorise and recite verbatim from experts’ texts, without the practice of citation. Moreover, the way students speak in class might be vastly different from what we see in their writing, often leading to false assumptions about plagiarism.

Academic dishonesty and plagiarism are Western concepts and values that are not universally shared or understood. International students who are being supported financially by family or their home governments sometimes feel tremendous pressure to succeed and might make unfortunate choices before they understand that what they are doing is plagiarism.

More commonly, students might not have been explicitly taught about plagiarism in all its varied forms. Particularly with the advent of social media, postings of images from the internet might be taken and used without crediting or citing the artists or authors. As technology develops, all students can benefit from new instructional information on what is acceptable and how to cite material properly.

Instructors should be mindful of the following recommendation, articulated in the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Statement on Second Language Writing and Writers, 2020:

“We advocate that instructors take extra care when suspecting a second language writer of plagiarism, and take into consideration the student’s cultural background, level of experience with North American educational systems, and confidence level for writing in English.”

Some suggestions for helping students to avoid plagiarism include being explicit about expectations. We need to communicate the rules, which are different in some cultures, by being clear in assignments and providing examples of finished assignments showing citation format, content and learning objectives.

I recommend building in multiple means of communication repeating these expectations: postings, email and announcements for assignments and expectations. Moreover, if students submit multiple drafts of an assignment, they can be taught how to avoid plagiarism before the final version is submitted.

It is worth spending time teaching all students, not just multilingual students, about how to avoid plagiarism. Use examples to show students how not to plagiarise. (Simply saying “Plagiarism is a crime” is not sufficient.) Know that in the vast majority of cases, this is not done intentionally, and international students might not understand that what they are doing is wrong. Avoid being punitive right away; rather, work with students to help them learn and try again.

Andrea Feldman is coordinator for English as a second language writers and a teaching professor of distinction at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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