This article reports on the results of research conducted by ACTFL on the construct validity of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and oral interview procedure. A multitrait‐multimethod validation study formed the basis of the research design and analysis, which included tests of speaking, writing, listening, and reading in French and English as a Second Language. Results from Rasch analyses are also reported. In general, the results provide strong support for the use of the Guidelines as a foundation for the development of proficiency tests and for the reliability and validity of the Oral Proficiency Interview. The paper includes a detailed description of the research methodology, instrumentation, data analyses, and results. A discussion of the results and suggestions for further research are also included.

Employing an initial sample of 143 adult Egyptian learners of English as a foreign language, the three oral testing methodologies of imitation, completion, and interview were compared for reliability and validity. Similarly, five components under each method, namely, raw score, fluency, pronunciation, grammar, and combined fluency‐pronunciation‐grammar ratings, were analyzed separately and in tandem. Multicomponent‐multimethod convergent and discriminant validities were determined. Stepwise multiple regression was computed using FSI‐like interview scores as the dependent variable. And Rasch latent trait calibration and tests of fit validity were computed for imitation and completion tests. Results indicated that the pronunciation component of the imitation method exhibited highest overall validity across all indexes. The FSI‐like component of the interview method ranked second and the fluency component of the imitation method ranked third. Comparison of the three oral testing methods across all components for all empirical validity indexes showed (1) imitation, (2) interview, and (3) completion methods to rank in that respective order in terms of available composite validity indexes. Regression analysis showed the FSI‐like interview to be primarily related to grammar skill from among 11 independent predictors examined. Advantages of Rasch measurement were noted for management and analysis of item data.

This article attempts to clarify and define quantitative research as it is applied in the study of language acquisition. Trends in the use of quantitative and nonquantitative methods in applied linguistics are reported, and suggestions are made concerning useful paradigms and procedures for further research in language acquisition.

This study investigated the validity of using a multipletrait scoring procedure to obtain communicative writing profiles of the writing performance of adult nonnative English speakers in assessment contexts different from that for which the instrument was designed. Tran sferability could be of great benefit to those without the resources to design and pilot a multiple‐trait scoring instrument of their own. A modification of the New Profile Scale (NPS)was applied in the rating of 170 essays taken from two non‐NPS contexts, including 91 randomly selected essays of the Test of Written English and 79 essays written by a cohort of University of Michigan entering undergraduate nonnative English speaking students responding to the Michigan Writing Assessment. The scoring method taken as a who leappeared to be highly reliable in composite assessment, appropriate for application to essays of different timed lengths and rhetorical modes, and appropriateto writers of different levels of educational preparation. However, whereas the subscales of Communicative Quality and Linguistic Accuracy tended to show individual discriminant validity, little psychometric support for reporting scores on seven or five components of writing was found. Arguments for transferring the NPS for use in new writing assessment contexts would thus be educational rather than statistical.

To determine whether second‐language learners encode vocabulary in memory by families of associated meanings and/or interrelated sounds (acoustic and semantic encoding clusters), and to ascertain the correlation between such encoding and language proficiency, 75 students were administered tests of STM vocabulary recognition and language proficiency. In experiment 1, 59 Ss were selected from 5 groups: 1 native speaker group and a group from each of the 4 proficiency levels for foreign students studying English as a second language. In a second study to cross‐validate the experiment, 16 native speakers and students of Persian as a second language were tested. Results indicated that second‐language learners do encode vocabulary into acoustic and semantic memory clusters; semantic and acoustic recognition errors were significantly more frequent than nonrelated errors (p < .01). Learners at a low‐proficiency level appeared to register vocabulary in memory more by sound similarities than by related meanings; high‐proficiency learners relied on associated meanings rather than sound similarities. Significant positive correlations (r= .612, .675) were found between proficiency and percentage of semantic errors. Significant negative correlations (r=−.573, −.675) were found between proficiency and the percentage of acoustic errors.