Scoring Spoken Second Language Assessment

2021 ◽  
pp. 301-314
Author(s):  
Ute Knoch
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Automated Scoring ◽  
Rater Training ◽  
Interviewer Effects ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Assessment Tasks ◽  
The Subject

Achieving scores that adequately reflect the test-takers’ proficiency level, as evidenced in spoken assessment tasks, has been the subject of a large body of research in second language assessment. In this chapter, the author outlines the work that has been undertaken in relation to the scoring of spoken assessments by human raters and automated scoring. The chapter focuses on research on rater effects, rater training and feedback, rater characteristics, interlocutor/interviewer effects, rating scales, and score resolution techniques. The section on automated scoring discusses research on the underlying construct and what limits this puts on the types of tasks that can be used in the assessment. The chapter concludes by setting out some future directions for the scoring of spoken responses.

Discussion on Scoring Issues in Second Signed or Spoken Language Assessment

2021 ◽  
pp. 329-332
Author(s):  
Tobias Haug ◽  
Ute Knoch ◽  
Wolfgang Mann
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Nonverbal Communication ◽  
Rasch Analysis ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Rater Training ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Language Assessments ◽  
New Research

This chapter is a joint discussion of key items related to scoring issues related to signed and spoken language assessment that were discussed in Chapters 9.1 and 9.2. One aspect of signed language assessment that has the potential to stimulate new research in spoken second language (L2) assessment is the scoring of nonverbal speaker behaviors. This aspect is rarely represented in the scoring criteria of spoken assessments and in many cases not even available to raters during the scoring process. The authors argue, therefore, for a broadening of the construct of spoken language assessment to also include elements of nonverbal communication in the scoring descriptors. Additionally, the importance of rater training for signed language assessments, application of Rasch analysis to investigate possible reasons of disagreement between raters, and the need to conduct research on rasting scales are discussed.

scholarly journals Multicompetence and native speaker variation in clausal packaging in Japanese

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Brown ◽  
Marianne Gullberg
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Native Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Systematic Variation ◽  
Language Pedagogy ◽  
Proficiency Level

Native speakers show systematic variation in a range of linguistic domains as a function of a variety of sociolinguistic variables. This article addresses native language variation in the context of multicompetence, i.e. knowledge of two languages in one mind (Cook, 1991). Descriptions of motion were elicited from functionally monolingual and non-monolingual speakers of Japanese, with analyses focusing on clausal packaging of Manner and Path. Results revealed that (1) acquisition of a second language (L2) appears to affect how speakers distribute information about motion in and across clauses in their first language (L1); (2) these effects can be seen with rather less knowledge of a second language than the advanced bilingual proficiency level typically studied; and (3) there appears to be little effect of L2 immersion in this domain since Japanese users of English as a second language (ESL) did not differ from Japanese users of English as a foreign language (EFL). We discuss the findings with respect to characterizations of emerging multicompetent grammars, and to implications for the construct of ‘the native speaker’, for language pedagogy and language assessment.

Young learners’ voices: Towards a learner-centered approach to understanding language assessment literacy

2021 ◽  
pp. 026553222199227
Author(s):  
Yuko Goto Butler ◽  
Xiaolin Peng ◽  
Jiyoon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Language Assessment ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Assessment Literacy ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Assessment Practice ◽  
Young Learners ◽  
Assessment Tasks ◽  
Sixth Grade Students ◽  
Assessment Skills

Language assessment literacy (LAL) has recently gained substantial attention among language educators and other stakeholders. However, existing models focus almost exclusively on teachers, test developers, and administrators, and lack students’ perspectives in their conceptualizations. To address this gap, with this exploratory study we aimed to understand young learners’ LAL. The participants were fourth- and sixth-grade students (ages 9–10 and 11–12, respectively, with 10 participants in each age group) in China. After taking English mock tests, the children participated in individual, semi-structured interviews that covered their understanding of the following: (a) assessment purposes and theories (their knowledge about how assessment works); (b) assessment skills (their views of assessment designs, procedures, and content); and (c) assessment principles (their notion of fairness, cheating, and feedback). The data were analyzed qualitatively in line with current LAL models. The results suggest that the children already had substantial assessment literacy in knowledge, skills, and principles. Although their teachers’ assessment practice remains form-focused, children generally want more communicative-based and diagnostic assessment. They also want more cognitively challenging and enjoyable assessment tasks. Our findings provide solid supporting evidence for the importance of considering students’ perspectives, along with the views of other stakeholders, in order to have a more balanced understanding of LAL.

Adult Chinese as a Second Language Learners' Willingness to Communicate in Chinese: Effects of Cultural, Affective, and Linguistic Variables

2017 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meihua Liu
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Length Of Stay ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Willingness To Communicate ◽  
Anxiety Scale ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Speaking Anxiety ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Chinese Learning

The present research explored the effects of cultural, affective, and linguistic variables on adult Chinese as a second language learners' willingness to communicate in Chinese. One hundred and sixty-two Chinese as a second language learners from a Chinese university answered the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scale, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale, Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, Use of Chinese Profile, as well as the Background Questionnaire. The major findings were as follows: (1) the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scales were significantly negatively correlated with Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale but positively correlated with length of stay in China and (2) Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale was a powerful negative predictor for the overall willingness to communicate in Chinese and the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scales, followed by length of stay in China, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, interaction attentiveness, and Chinese proficiency level. Apparently, students' willingness to communicate in Chinese is largely determined by their Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale level and length of stay in China, mediated by other variables such as Chinese proficiency level and intercultural communication sensitivity level.

Written Expression in Boys with Attention Deficit Disorder

1994 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 1131-1138 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Peter Resta ◽  
John Eliot
Keyword(s):  
Attention Deficit ◽  
Attention Deficit Disorder ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Attention Deficits ◽  
Written Expression ◽  
Visual Motor ◽  
Teachers And Parents ◽  
Bender Gestalt Test

32 boys, between the ages of 8 and 13 years, were identified on four teachers' and parents' rating scales (including the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-III for ADD) as showing attention deficits and hyperactivity (ADD + H; n = 10), attention deficits without hyperactivity (ADD - H; n = 11), or without ADD (attention deficits controls; n = 11). All subjects were administered Bender's Visual-motor Gestalt test and the Written Language Assessment. The ADD + H children produced significantly more errors on the Bender-Gestalt test, and both groups with attention deficits had lower (poorer) scores on most of the written language subtests. Results were interpreted as providing evidence that these children possessed significant limitations in their writing, copying, and composition.

scholarly journals Finding the key to successful L2 learning in groups and individuals

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wander Lowie ◽  
Marijn Van Dijk ◽  
Huiping Chan ◽  
Marjolijn Verspoor
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Learner Characteristics ◽  
Complex Dynamic ◽  
Over Time

A large body studies into individual differences in second language learning has shown that success in second language learning is strongly affected by a set of relevant learner characteristics ranging from the age of onset to motivation, aptitude, and personality. Most studies have concentrated on a limited number of learner characteristics and have argued for the relative importance of some of these factors. Clearly, some learners are more successful than others, and it is tempting to try to find the factor or combination of factors that can crack the code to success. However, isolating one or several global individual characteristics can only give a partial explanation of success in second language learning. The limitation of this approach is that it only reflects on rather general personality characteristics of learners at one point in time, while both language development and the factors affecting it are instances of complex dynamic processes that develop over time. Factors that have been labelled as “individual differences” as well as the development of proficiency are characterized by nonlinear relationships in the time domain, due to which the rate of success cannot be simply deduced from a combination of factors. Moreover, in complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) literature it has been argued that a generalization about the interaction of variables across individuals is not warranted when we acknowledge that language development is essentially an individual process (Molenaar, 2015). In this paper, the viability of these generalizations is investigated by exploring the L2 development over time for two identical twins in Taiwan who can be expected to be highly similar in all respects, from their environment to their level of English proficiency, to their exposure to English, and to their individual differences. In spite of the striking similarities between these learners, the development of their L2 English over time was very different. Developmental patterns for spoken and written language even showed opposite tendencies. These observations underline the individual nature of the process of second language development.

scholarly journals Language Usage and Second Language Morphosyntax: Effects of Availability, Reliability, and Formulaicity

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rundi Guo ◽  
Nick C. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Elicited Imitation ◽  
Short Delay ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Generalized Linear Mixed Effects

A large body of psycholinguistic research demonstrates that both language processing and language acquisition are sensitive to the distributions of linguistic constructions in usage. Here we investigate how statistical distributions at different linguistic levels – morphological and lexical (Experiments 1 and 2), and phrasal (Experiment 2) – contribute to the ease with which morphosyntax is processed and produced by second language learners. We analyze Chinese ESL learners’ knowledge of four English inflectional morphemes: -ed, -ing, and third-person -s on verbs, and plural -s on nouns. In Elicited Imitation Tasks, participants listened to length- and difficulty-matched sentences each containing one target morpheme and typed the whole sentence as accurately as they could after a short delay. Experiment 1 investigated lexical and morphemic levels, testing the hypotheses that a morpheme is expected to be more easily processed when it is (1) highly available (i.e., occurring in frequent word-forms), and (2) highly reliable (i.e., occurring in lemma words that are consistently conjugated in the form containing this morpheme). Thirty sentences were made for each morpheme, divided into three Availability-Reliability Distribution (ARD) groups on the basis of corpus analysis in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA; Davies, 2008-): 10 target words high in availability, 10 high in reliability, and 10 low in both reliability and availability. Responses were scored on whether the target morpheme was accurately reproduced given the provision of the correct lemma. A generalized linear mixed-effects logit model (GLMM) revealed fixed effects of morpheme type, availability, and reliability on the accuracy of morpheme provision. There were no effects of lemma frequency. Experiment 2 successfully replicated these results and extended the investigation to explore phrasal formulaicity by manipulating the frequency of the four-word strings in which the morpheme was embedded. GLMMs replicated the effects of word-form availability and reliability and additionally revealed independent phrase-superiority effects where morphemes were better reproduced in contexts of higher string-frequency. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that morpheme acquisition reflects the distributional properties of learners’ experience and the mappings therein between lexis, morphology, phraseology, and semantics. These conclusions support an emergentist view of the statistical symbolic learning of morphology where language acquisition involves the satisfaction of competing constraints across multiple grain-sizes of units.

scholarly journals IMPACT OF FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT ON THE CONFIDENCE OF YOUNG LEARNERS IN THE SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 139
Author(s):  
Olja R. Milošević ◽  
Marina S. Cvetković
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Formative Assessment ◽  
Student Motivation ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Young Learners ◽  
Assessment Tasks ◽  
Language Classroom

The aim of this paper is to explore the benefits of formative assessment and to show how formative assessment tasks can impact confidence and motivation of young learners in the second language classroom. It presents a small scale study and its findings indicate that students perform much better if they receive feedback on their performance on a regular basis and that formative assessment tasks could be a way to enhance student motivation and thus improve language acquisition.

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