Empirical Learner Language and the Levels of the <i>Common European Framework of Reference</i>

Wisniewski, Katrin

doi:10.1111/lang.12223

Cited by 31 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…In other words, even though the objective measures of linguistic features have an essential role in scoring, raters' evaluations tend to be influenced by their judgment of the overall effect of communication. Wisniewski (2017) reviewing empirical work on learner language and CEFR noted that language tests based on CEFR levels are often for high stakes and impact on livelihoods. CEFR ability levels were not designed to map onto a development continuum along which language proficiency might be placed, and the levels were arrived at without the benefit of analyzing learner language.…”

Section: Assessing Spoken Learner English Using Cefrmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating CEFR rater performance through the analysis of spoken learner corpora

Huang

Kubelec²,

Keng

et al. 2018

Lang Test Asia

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Background: Although teachers of English are required to assess students' speaking proficiency in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), their ability to rate is seldom evaluated. The application of descriptors in the assessment of English speaking on CEFR in the context of English as a foreign language has not often been investigated, either. Methods: The present study first introduced a form of rater standardization training. Two trained raters then assessed the speaking proficiency of 100 learners by means of actual corpus data. The study then compared their rating results to evaluate interrater reliability. Next, ten samples of exact/adjacent agreement between Raters 1 and 2 were rated by six teachers of English in tertiary education. Two of them had attended rater standardization training with Raters 1 and 2, while the other four had not received any relevant training. Results: The two raters agreed exactly in 44% of cases. The rating results between the two trained raters were closely correlated (ρ = .893). Cross-tabulation showed that in one third of the samples, Rater 2 scored higher than Rater 1 and they agreed more often at the higher levels. The better rating performance of Teachers 1 and 2 suggested that rater standardization training may have helped enhance their performance. The unsatisfactory proportion of correctly assigned levels in teachers' ratings overall was probably due to the high input of subjective judgment based on vague CEFR descriptors. Conclusions: Regarding assessment, it is shown that the attendance of rater standardization training is of help in assessing learners' speaking proficiency in CEFR. This study provides a model for assessing data from spoken learner corpora, which adds an important attribute to future studies of learner corpora. The paper also raises doubts about teachers' ability to evaluate students' speaking proficiency in CEFR. As CEFR has been widely adopted in the relevant fields of English language teaching and assessment, it is suggested that the rating training framework established in this study, which uses learner corpus data, be offered to (prospective) teachers of English in tertiary education.

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Section: Assessing Spoken Learner English Using Cefrmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating CEFR rater performance through the analysis of spoken learner corpora

Huang

Kubelec²,

Keng

et al. 2018

Lang Test Asia

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…CEFR turns out to be, however, a popular framework adopted particularly for testing purposes in the teaching of English in Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China (Mohamad Uri & Abd Aziz, 2018) though several scholars and educators have pointed out some of CEFR's major drawbacks. Wisniewski (2017), for instance, notes that CEFR scales and predictors were never matched onto empirical learner language. Hence, it is unclear whether the scales correspond to authentic learner behaviour or whether they are simply derived from teachers' perspective of learners' development or some official desiderata.…”

Section: English Language Education and Research On Malaysian Primarymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Acquisition of English Grammar Among Malay- English Bilingual Primary School Children

Salleh

Biase

Ramlan

2020

gema

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Studies to document the English acquisitional trajectory of Malaysian learners are scant and this normative data is imperative for syllabus-designers, policy-makers, teachers as well as linguists to understand the root cause of the students' low proficiency in English. Hence, this article presents the acquisition of English grammar among Malay-English bilingual primary school children. Seven nine-year-old children, who have attended the same primary school which employed the Standard Based Curriculum for Primary Schools (KSSR) syllabus for 2 years (i.e., since they were 7 years old) became the subject of this study. The speech output of the children was elicited from two communicative tasks. Their English grammatical acquisition was then analysed using the Processability Theory (PT) framework. Other than the school environment, the children's home language factor was also examined. The results indicate that other than the home language environmental factor, the children's language aptitude also contributes to their English grammatical acquisition. In terms of PT's developmental stages, it was also found that the children's acquisition of English morphology adheres to the stages predicted by PT. The findings also lend credence to PT's typological applicability across different populations.

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“…For example, some scales (e.g., ACTFL, CLB) have not been empirically tested (Alhussain, 2019;Tigchelaar, Bowles, Winke, & Gass, 2017), and thus may raise reliability and validity concerns. Even CEFE, as authoritative as it is, has been criticized by some scholars for taking a broad brush in its scaling process (Wisniewski, 2017).…”

Section: Comparisons Of Cse With Existing Proficiency Scalesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Going Global: The Successful Link of IELTS and Aptis to China’s Standards of English Language Ability (CSE)

Chen¹,

Hu²

2020

IJEL

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The development of a common language proficiency scale is essential to language teaching, learning, and assessment. While some general English proficiency scales already exist, no such scale is available in an Asian context. China’s Standards of English Language Ability (CSE), as the first scale of its kind, promises to address this deficiency with a clear focus on the student population, grounded in the well-established framework of communicative language ability. As such, it not only illuminates the learning patterns of English language learners at different stages, but also provides a benchmark for curriculum design, student evaluation, and the improvement of educational programs. More importantly, its recent link with such international tests as Aptis and IELTS marks a significant step towards the internationalization of this scale, making student grades on different tests more comparable. The official mapping of CSE to the international examination system opens China’s education further to the rest of the world, and would facilitate student exchanges and deepen educational ties between countries in the future.

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Empirical Learner Language and the Levels of the Common European Framework of Reference

Cited by 31 publications

References 57 publications

Evaluating CEFR rater performance through the analysis of spoken learner corpora

Evaluating CEFR rater performance through the analysis of spoken learner corpora

The Acquisition of English Grammar Among Malay- English Bilingual Primary School Children

Going Global: The Successful Link of IELTS and Aptis to China’s Standards of English Language Ability (CSE)

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