Empirically developed proficiency bands to assess foreign language teachers’ fluency
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46230/2674-8266-13-6076Keywords:
Teacher assessment, Fluency, Foreign LanguageAbstract
The consideration of empirical evidence for the development of evaluation criteria in proficiency exams constitutes an argument for the validity of the operationalized construct, as well as giving greater reliability to the results produced by evaluation instruments. The Proficiency Exam for Foreign Language Teachers (EPPLE), an evaluation tool under development for the assessment of language teachers in the Brazilian educational context, lacks empirical validation of its criteria for assessing fluency, as it does not have an analytical proficiency scale. This paper presents results of the application of Empirically derived, Binary choice, Boundary Definition scales (EBBs), which is an empirical methodology for the selection of evaluation criteria, emplyed for the analysis of oral performance samples of future foreign language teachers from the EPPLE database. From the analysis of the oral performance samples, it is suggested that the analytical proficiency scale and the framework of evaluative criteria incorporate hesitation phenomena observed from a global and communicative perspective. In addition, pauses, self-corrections, repetitions and reformulations of utterances were identified as determining aspects to define the characteristic performances of each language proficiency band.
Downloads
References
AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES (ACTFL), 2013. The ACTFL proficiency guidelines 2012 - speaking. Disponível em: https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/public/ACTFLProficiencyGuidelines2012_FINAL.pdf. Acesso em: 05 fev. 2021.
CENOZ, J. Pauses and hesitation phenomena in second language production. ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics. 2000.
COLOMBO, C. S. Avaliação de Proficiência Oral em Língua Estrangeira: Uma Proposta de Abordagem Avaliativa em um Exame para Professores de Línguas com base em Métodos de Estruturação de Problemas e em Métodos Multicritério de Análise da Decisão. 2019. 262 f. Tese (Doutorado em Estudos Linguísticos) – Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”. São José do Rio Preto/SP, 2019.
CONSOLO, D. A. A competência oral de professores de língua estrangeira: a relação teoria-prática no contexto brasileiro. In: CONSOLO, D. A.; TEIXEIRA DA SILVA, V. L. (Orgs.), Olhares e competências do professor de língua estrangeira: da formação ao desempenho profissional. São José do Rio Preto: NH, 2007, p. 165-178.
CONSOLO, D. A. Assessing EFL teachers’ oral proficiency: on the development of teacher education programmes and testing policies in Brazil. In: DOUGLAS et al. (Org.) Perspectivas em avaliação no ensino e na aprendizagem de línguas: pesquisas e encaminhamentos na formação e na prática docente. Campinas: Pontes Editores, 2017.
EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE. Developing analytic rating guides for TOEFL iBT Integrated Speaking Tasks. 2013. Disponível em: https://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/RR-13-13.pdf. Acesso em: 05 FEV. 2021.
FILLMORE, C. J. On fluency. In: FILLMORE, C. J.; KEMPLER, D.; WANG, W. (ed.). Individual differences in language ability and language behaviour. New York: Academic Press. 1979.
FULCHER, G.; DAVIDSON, F.; KEMP, J. Effective rating scale development for speaking tests: performance decision trees. Language Testing. Leicester: 2011.
FULCHER, G. Defining the construct. In: Testing second language speaking. New York: Routledge, 2014.
GHANEM, R.; KANG, O. Pronunciation features in rating criteria. In: KANG, O.; GINTHER, A (ed.). Assessment in Second Language Pronunciation. New York: Routledge. 2018.
IELTS. IELTS Speaking band descriptors. Disponível em: https://www.ielts.org/-/media/pdfs/speaking-band-descriptors.ashx?la=en. Acesso em: 05 fev. 2021.
JONG, N. Fluency in Second Language Testing: Insights from different disciplines. Language Assessment Quarterly. 2018.
KENNEDY, S.; TROFIMOVICH, P. Intelligibility, comprehensibility and accentedness of L2 speech: The role of listener experience and semantic context. Canadian Modern Language Review, 2008.
LENNON, P. Investigating fluency in EFL: A quantitative approach. Language Learning. 1990.
LENNON, P. The lexical element in spoken second language fluency. In: RIGGENBACH, H. (ed.) Perspectives on fluency. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press. 2000.
LIYANAGE, I.; GARDNER, R. Assessing fluency: are the criteria fair?. Classroom discourse. 2013.
UPSHUR, J. A.; TURNER, C. E. Constructing rating scales for second language tests. ELT Journal. Oxford University Press. 1995.
RODRIGUES, L. C. B. A formação do professor de língua estrangeira no século XXI: Entre as antigas pressões e os novos desafios. Revista Signum. 2016.
SEGALOWITZ, N. Cognitive bases of second language fluency. New York, NY: Routledge. 2010.
TURNER, C. Listening to the Voices of Rating Scale Developers: Identifying Salient Features for Second Language Performance Assessment. Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes. 2000.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Diego Fernando de Oliveira
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in Linguagem em Foco Scientific Journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication. The articles are simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which allows sharing the work with an acknowledgement of its authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- The concepts issued in signed articles are the absolute and exclusive responsibility of their authors. Therefore, we request a Statement of Copyright, which must be submitted with the manuscript as a Supplementary Document.
- Authors are authorized to make the version of the text published in Linguagem em Foco Scientific Journal available in institutional repositories or other academic work distribution platforms (ex. ResearchGate, Academia.edu).
