Examining the scoring of test-takers’ ability to integrate prior knowledge and source content into spoken discourse: A Rasch analysis

Rongchan Lin林容婵

 Teachers College, Columbia University     Ed.D. Student

论文摘要Paper AbstractIn daily communication, it is essential to tap into our prior knowledge and/or use the content embedded in real-world sources to convey meaning. Therefore, the ability to integrate content into discourse should be considered as part of the second language proficiency construct. However, existing studies did not seem to score for this ability explicitly when employing analytic scoring. The ability to integrate content into discourse is usually confounded with organizational ability, prompting us to rethink the design of the rubric.

This study investigates the scoring of test-takers’ ability to integrate prior knowledge and source content into discourse via a scenario-based listening-speaking test in Chinese. Seventy-one international students in China took the test which comprised three tasks. The first two tasks each required the test-takers to watch a news clip and retell the content to a simulated peer. The last task required the test-takers to synthesize their prior knowledge and the content of the news to deliver an oral presentation. For each task, the test-takers were scored for content integration, organization, delivery, and language control. A Rasch analysis was conducted and the findings will be presented. Limitations of the study, implications for the field, and future research directions will be discussed.

发言人简介Presenter's BioRongchan Lin received her B.A. from Peking University, her M.A. from the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, and her Ed.M. from Teachers College, Columbia University. After a stint in the Singapore civil service, she is currently pursuing her Ed.D. degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, focusing on second language assessment. Rongchan currently chairs the Nominating Committee (2016-2017) and co-chairs the Student Committee (2015-2017) of the Asian Association for Language Assessment (AALA).