Introduction: On the unbearable lightness of monolingual assessment practices in education

In recent years, many researchers have published theoretical papers and developed practical scenarios for plurilingual assessment practices, which the authors of this chapter classify into five categories, two of which are at the core of this book: the assessment of plurilingual individuals and the assessment of plurilingual competence. Under “the assessment of plurilingual individuals”, the authors claim that plurilingual assessment practices are necessary to foster social justice and equity in (language) education. The chapter then situates the interest in the assessment of plurilingual competence in the context of the latest research and provides a typology of assessment modalities, distinguishing between hybrid assessment, which uses monolingual tests to establish plurilingual profiles, and holistic assessment, which allows translanguaging or integrates various languages and directly addresses the plurilingual competences of the learners. The chapter ends with a short presentation of the coherence of the book and of each chapter.