Assessing Communicative Language Ability: Models and Their Components
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ASSESSING COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE ABILITY: MODELS AND THEIR COMPONENTS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter examines various approaches to the assessment of communicative language ability (CLA) by discussing their starting points—the models of language ability used to generate second language (L2) assessments. It also brings to the forefront the ongoing discussion about what components comprise CLA and how learning and assessment can be differentially affected by these components. In the quest to understand the nature of CLA and how second or foreign (L2) language knowledge can be used successfully to communicate a variety of meanings in different social and academic contexts, language testing researchers have proposed an array of theoretical models of L2 ability as a basis for assessment. Some of these models (e.g., Bachman and Palmer, 1996; Canale and Swain, 1980; Chapelle 1998; Douglas, 2000; Purpura, 2004) explicitly represent the components of the L2 ability construct along with their presumed interrelationships. Examples of knowledge components specified in these models include, among others, grammatical knowledge, lexical knowledge, discourse knowledge, sociolinguistic knowledge, and pragmatic knowledge. These models aim to reflect the most scientifically credible ways in which learners represent L2 knowledge and the ability to use this knowledge for communication. These models also aim to provide a broad theoretical basis for the definition of CLA in creating and interpreting language tests in a variety of language use settings. Rather than providing a prescription for test development, they represent potential targets of assessment that can be adapted to a range of test purposes and contexts—while at the same time, sharing certain common principles with a unifying framework. In another approach to assessing CLA, the components of language ability are derived not so much from empirical research or a theoretical model of language ability, but from the opinions of experts with firsthand experience teaching the local curricula and assessing student performance. These experts are believed to have clear ideas about the knowledge and skills needed for successful communication in the target language. In this approach, curriculum and assessment standards are often developed to describe levels of student achievement without E. Shohamy and N. H. Hornberger (eds), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd Edition, Volume 7: Language Testing and Assessment, 53–68. #2008 Springer Science+Business Media LLC.
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JAMES E. PURPURA
explicit guidance of learning theories or models of language proficiency, or the systematic empirical inquiry needed to verify these standards and their use. This approach was used, for example, to construct the ESL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students (TESOL, 1997). Based on eight working principles of language acquisition identified by language experts, this framework outlines the goals, performance levels and descriptors of the behaviors underlying each standard, and observable indicators of how progress on th
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