Our gradebooks must reflect the following truth: All students can succeed, as long as they are being evaluated according to their own internal timeline. We must reward growth, focus, and interaction with the language. We must NOT base our grades on the ability to produce (usually memorized) language on an arbitrary timeline set by external, and often for-profit, organizations, such as textbook companies and national exams of grammar.
Another factor that come into play in the rate and pace of a particular student’s language acquisition is their already established L1 literacy. The richer a student’s L1 vocabulary, the more cognates they will recognize in their L2, if it is a cognate-rich language for them.
The more reading and decoding skills they have already developed in L1, the stronger, faster, and more confident they will be when attacking L2 text. The more confidence they have in L1 literacy, the more robust their self-concept as a L2 student will be, and the more risks they will be apt to take. And then there are learning differences, neurodiversity, the effects of poverty, mental health concerns — so many factors influencing how quickly students will acquire the language and develop proficiency in reading, listening, speaking, and writing.
So, what should we base our grades on? We should base them on what students can control, and not on what they cannot control, in an acquisition-focused classroom.