Measuring L2 Proficiency: Perspectives from SLA

Published by Multilingual Matters 2014

Measuring L2 Proficiency

Perspectives from SLA

Edited by: Pascale Leclercq , Amanda Edmonds and Heather Hilton

In the series Second Language Acquisition

https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783092291

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book brings together ideas on identifying and measuring second language proficiency. The chapters introduce a range of tools for the evaluation of learners' language level with respect to both productive and receptive skills and provide a variety of answers to the question of how to assess L2 proficiency in a valid, reliable and practical way.

Author / Editor information

Leclercq Pascale :

Pascale Leclercq is a Lecturer in the English Studies Department of Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, France, where she teaches English as a Foreign Language, second language acquisition and L2 pedagogy to undergraduate and postgraduate students, and trains future language teachers.

Edmonds Amanda :

Amanda Edmonds is a Lecturer in French as a Foreign Language at the Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, France. She is currently director of the Master's program in French as a Foreign Language, and her teaching includes courses on FFL, second language acquisition, and language pedagogy.

Hilton Heather :

Heather Hilton is a Professor in the Language Department at the Université de Lyon 2, France. She has extensive experience of language teaching and now researches language acquisition and foreign language teaching methodology with a particular focus on young learners and learners with learning differences.

Pascale Leclercq is a Lecturer in the English Studies Department of Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, France, where she teaches English as a Foreign Language, second language acquisition and L2 pedagogy to undergraduate and postgraduate students, and trains future language teachers.

Amanda Edmonds is a Lecturer in French as a Foreign Language at the Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, France. She is currently director of the Master's program in French as a Foreign Language, and her teaching includes courses on FFL, second language acquisition, and language pedagogy.

Heather Hilton is a Professor in the Language Department at the Université de Lyon 2, France. She has extensive experience of language teaching and now researches language acquisition and foreign language teaching methodology with a particular focus on young learners and learners with learning differences.

Reviews

Offering new insights into SLA, language proficiency research and innovative measurement technologies, this rich volume contributes to a deeper understanding of the proficiency construct. Drawing from linguistic, cognitive and educational perspectives, it particularly explores proficiency indicators that are valid, reliable and easily-implemented. It is essential reading for SLA researchers.

This excellent book addresses three related questions that are at the heart of all research in second/foreign language acquisition, applied linguistics and language testing: What constitutes L2 proficiency? What makes a second language (L2) learner a proficient language user? And how can L2 proficiency, in all its multifacetedness, be adequately (i.e. validly but also reliably and feasibly) measured? What makes this timely volume unique is that these questions are approached not from a language testing perspective but from different branches within second language learning and teaching research. As such, this volume marks a much needed renewal of interest in reliability and feasibility as key criteria in L2 proficiency assessment. It offers most stimulating and rewarding reading for second language researchers and practitioners alike.

This book is devoted to a neglected but important aspect in SLA research: proper assessment of participants' L2 proficiency. I therefore warmly recommend this book to both seasoned and novice SLA researchers. The book starts with an accessible introductory chapter on assessment of L2 proficiency in SLA research. Then follow ten chapters giving state-of-the-art information on a wide range of techniques forming part of proficiency assessment. Read this book if you wonder what proficiency assessment has to do with matters such as: CEFR levels, learner corpora and error tagging, comprehension restitution, translation recognition, fluency index, inter-rater agreement, phraseology, coefficient of variation, semantic priming, and online collaboration between researchers.

Bryan Donaldson, University of California , Santa Cruz, USA:

This book's value lies in renewing interest in a long-standing, thorny issue that often receives less contemplation than it is due. Researchers, testing and assessment specialists, and advanced students will fi nd much to ponder, and the field should welcome and embrace the editors’ appeal for profi ciency measures that are feasible, reliable, and that allow for comparisons between studies of different L2s.

Zehra Savran, Firat University, Turkey:

The eleven chapters contained in this volume have contributed greatly to the field of SLA as they provide a variety of answers to the question of how to assess L2 proficiency. The chapters are coherent in themselves as they provide a broad understanding of the concepts on the assessment of proficiency making a meaningful whole.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
Preface Heather Hilton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Introduction
1. How to Assess L2 Proficiency? An Overview of Proficiency Assessment Research Pascale Leclercq and Amanda Edmonds Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
Part 1: General Considerations for L2 Assessment
2. Oral Fluency and Spoken Proficiency: Considerations for Research and Testing Heather Hilton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
3. Multiple Assessments of Oral Proficiency: Evidence from a Collaborative Platform John Osborne Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
4. Using Learner Corpora for Testing and Assessing L2 Proficiency Marcus Callies, María Belén Díez-Bedmar and Ekaterina Zaytseva Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
Part 2: Language Processing and L2 Proficiency
5. Listening Comprehension: Processing Demands and Assessment Issues Peter Prince Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
6. A Psycholinguistic Measurement of Second Language Proficiency: The Coefficient of Variation Carrie A. Ankerstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
7. Evaluating the Workings of Bilingual Memory with a Translation Recognition Task Dominique Bairstow, Jean-Marc Lavaur, Jannika Laxén and Xavier Aparicio Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
Part 3: Focused Assessment Instruments
8. ‘Repeat as Much as You Can’: Elicited Imitation as a Measure of Oral Proficiency in L2 French Nicole Tracy-Ventura, Kevin McManus, John M. Norris and Lourdes Ortega Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
9. Exploring the Acquisition of the French Subjunctive: Local Syntactic Context or Oral Proficiency? Kevin McManus, Nicole Tracy-Ventura, Rosamond Mitchell, Laurence Richard and Patricia Romero de Mills Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
10. Testing L2 Listening Proficiency: Reviewing Standardized Tests Within a Competence-Based Framework Naouel Zoghlami Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
11. Assessing Language Dominance with the Bilingual Language Profile Libby M. Gertken, Mark Amengual and David Birdsong Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
Epilogue Pascale Leclercq and Amanda Edmonds Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	226
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	228