Assessment Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching by Lia Plakans & Atta Gebril

Author:Lia Plakans & Atta Gebril [Plakans, Lia]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780472122059
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 2016-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

Constructs and Construct Validity

In the field of measurement in the 1980s, Cronbach (1988) and Messick (1989) proposed a cohesive view of validity described as construct validity. In language testing construct validity means that the overall judgment of a test’s validity should be found in evidence connecting it to a theoretical model of language ability, use, or knowledge. The construct is determined by the purpose of an assessment. For example, if a test’s purpose is to evaluate students’ speaking skills in Spanish, then a test developer should consider a construct that details Spanish language use, particularly components required for speaking.

Two constructs of language ability can serve to illustrate the relationship between language testing and validity: communicative competence and communicative adequacy. The construct of communicative competence has been pervasive in the field since the 1980s (Canale, 1983; Canale & Swain, 1980) (and was discussed in Myth 3). If this construct were used to develop a test of Spanish-speaking ability, then to evaluate its validity we would consider the combination of test tasks, student performances, and scoring rubric in eliciting the components of communicative competence. Tasks that require students to communicate for a specific audience, such as asking a store clerk for help in finding an unusual food item, would likely produce language showing sociolinguistic, linguistic, and discourse competencies. A rating scale that incorporates how students deal with negotiating for meaning and the logical flow of their responses may tap into their strategic and discourse competencies.

Communicative competence has been an important construct for language learning and assessment; however, with changes in the field of second language learning, recent constructs have attempted to feature context and interaction more prominently. One such construct proposed for language assessment is communicative adequacy. A group of scholars have investigated this construct in writing assessment (Kuiken, Vedder, & Gilabert, 2010) with the intent to add to research on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and, specifically, to consider the relationship between communicative adequacy and linguistic complexity in writing assessment. For their study, they defined the construct of communicative adequacy as:

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