Toward a Sociolinguistic Assessment Model for Evaluating Language Learning Through Performance Literature: A Conceptual Framework for Preserving East Javanese Local Wisdom

Abstract

This conceptual paper proposes a sociolinguistic assessment model for evaluating language learning through sastra pentas (performance literature), positioning staged literary performance as both a learning medium and an authentic context for assessment. Conventional language testing, grounded in decontextualized instruments, tends to measure knowledge about language rather than the situated ability to use it, thereby overlooking the pragmatic, cultural, and interactional dimensions that define competent communication in multilingual communities. Drawing on theories of communicative and sociolinguistic competence, drama-based pedagogy, and authentic assessment, and on scholarship concerning language maintenance and local wisdom in Indonesia, this paper argues that performance literature offers a uniquely suitable site for evaluating language learning in a way that also serves cultural preservation. Through a conceptual analysis and synthesis of the relevant literature, the paper develops an integrated model that organizes evaluation around four domains—linguistic proficiency, sociolinguistic sensitivity, cultural transmission (local wisdom), and performative-strategic competence—each specified through observable indicators applicable to a live or recorded performance. The paper contends that embedding cultural performance within assessment can make the preservation of East Javanese local wisdom a measured outcome of language education rather than an unassessed aspiration, and that evaluation so designed can support the reversal of language shift. The proposed framework is offered as a transferable conceptual foundation for language education in multilingual settings, together with an agenda for its subsequent empirical validation.