Oral language testing at tay nguyen university  (Page 14/53)

2.4.1 level scale

The explicit classification of test takers’ language knowledge levels helps to grade test tasks according to the communicative stress. It is displayed on a formal document including established ‘criterion levels of oral language proficiency based on the goals and objectives of classroom instruction’ (O’Malley&Pierce, 1996, p.65). This document, called a level scale or rating scale by Underhill (1987), is a series of short descriptions of different levels of language ability in terms of test takers’ or students’ language knowledge. It describes in brief what a typical learner at each level can do so that teachers and assessors can analytically select or grade test tasks that best fit each level, and can easily decide on the score to give each student in a test.

The following is an example of a level scale with four major levels (Table 2.1 on page 17) based on the level scale introduced in ‘Hệ thống Định chuẩn Trình độ Ngoại ngữ’ của Hội đồng Châu Âu by Vũ Thị Phương Anh and Nguyễn Thị Kim Thư (2003).

Table 2.1: Level Scale of Language Proficiency Based on the Global Scale by Council of Europe

2.4.2 oral test types and elicitation techniques

When test takers’ proficiency level is explicitly identified on the level scale, adequate oral test types and proper elicitation techniques must be critically selected to fit the test takers’ level and the testing situation. This sub-section reviews types of oral test in combination with elicitation techniques of this kind of testing, for these two aspects have an interrelated relationship. An elicitation technique involves the procedures of performance for each test task, and a test task itself represents a test type.