9/13/2015

Apsycholinguisticapproachtoorallanguageassessment

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Source: 2014JournalCitationReports
(ThomsonReuters,2015)

LanguageTesting
ltj.sagepub.com
PublishedonlinebeforeprintMarch7,2012,doi:10.1177/0265532211424478
LanguageTestingJuly2012vol.29no.3325344

Apsycholinguisticapproachtooral
languageassessment
AlistairVanMoere
KnowledgeTechnologies,Pearson,USA
AlistairVanMoere,299SCaliforniaAvenue,PaloAlto,CA94306,USAEmail:
avanmoere@pearsonkt.com

Abstract
This paper presents a framework for incorporating the assessment of psycholinguistic
constructs into spoken language proficiency testing. Although response time and
automaticity of language processing are vital factors in language acquisition, as
constructs they are rarely explicitly assessed in language tests. It is proposed that
efficiencyofprocessing,althoughitdoesnotappearinmostmodelsofcommunicative
languagecompetence,mightbeviewedasalanguagecompetenceinitsownright.In
contrast to communicative approaches to testing which evaluate mastery of complex
language structures or domainspecific vocabulary, an approach which emphasizes
efficiency of processing evaluates the speed and accuracy with which a learner
processes familiar language, as this provides equally useful information about their L2
proficiency.Inastudytodemonstratethis,thespeechof147testtakerswasevaluated
as they performed on conceptually simple and straightforward performance tasks such
aselicitedimitation. It was found that sentence repetition and sentence building tasks
reliably separated test takers according to proficiency in a way that accounts for the
http://ltj.sagepub.com/content/29/3/325.abstract

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9/13/2015

Apsycholinguisticapproachtoorallanguageassessment

tradeoff between fluency, accuracy and complexity. While these tasks would not be
considered communicative, they are psycholinguistically valid and also link to good
practiceinclassroomlanguagelearningactivities.
automaticity elicitedimitation fluency psycholinguistic Versant

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http://ltj.sagepub.com/content/29/3/325.abstract

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