ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to apply sociolinguistic variation principles to address best practices in L2 teaching and accountability in assessment. It provides a veteran’s “been there, done that” practical guide, proposing a holistic approach to produce a coherent curriculum that contains culturally authentic language content knowledge, systematically delivered to the learners, using digital technology to enhance communicative competence, and assessed by modern tools. The holistic approach contains three components: (1) a three-pronged socio-cognitive model of curriculum design; (2) a Technology-Pedagogy-And-Content Knowledge (TPACK) model that integrates digital technology into communicative language teaching; and (3) a performance assessment integrating standards and tasks, measured by Rasch analysis to identify test bias and rater severity in L2 assessment.
