Assessment in Second Language Pronunciation by Okim Kang April Ginther & April Ginther

Author:Okim Kang,April Ginther & April Ginther
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2017-05-25T00:00:00+00:00

p.84

Regarding judgments of accentedness and comprehensibility in the context of rater training, reasonable expectations on rater agreement are recommended. The subjective nature of speech suggests that it is natural to expect different perceptions of comprehensibility across individuals. Therefore, rater training should focus on bringing raters to alignment on the conceptualization and operationalization of scale descriptors’ comprehensibility. In the context of oral proficiency testing, rater trainers should be mindful about the relationship between accentedness judgments and ratings of other analytic components of oral proficiency and the possibility that perceptions of L2 accents or comprehensibility may mask ratings on other components. On the one hand, from a measurement perspective, it is important for language testers to be aware of potential sources of rater unreliability due to raters’ different perceptions of L2 accented speech. On the other, examination of the impact of rater interactions gathered from language testing literature can inform researchers of other fields about the practical impact of different rater effects. As social interaction is moderated by an array of factors, examinations of the impact of different factors on speech production and perception can help rank these factors, especially in high-stakes contexts where decisions about placement are involved.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.