An Introduction to Applied Linguistics
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Norbert Schmitt (ed.) - An Introduction to Applied Linguistics (2010, Routledge) - libgen.li
Figure 15.4 Degree of specificity in construct definition
An example comes from a project whose purpose was to develop the Occupational English Test in Australia (McNamara, 1996). One of the testing procedures on this language test required the examinee to play the role of a physiotherapist who was interacting with a patient. The construct of interest in this test was the ability to use English for speaking with patients. The detailed construct definition would consist of the many questions and statements of advice that physiotherapists would need to give as well as the lexico-grammatical constructions required to interact in this context. Such a test would not require the examinee to listen to the daily news about animals in the wildlife preserve west of Melbourne, nor would the examinee be asked to read materials from a textbook on brain surgery. The construct of speaking for particular types of medical interactions would define the test tasks. A general purpose construct definition, in contrast, is intended to assess language without reference to a particular context of language use. For example, the Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, Schmitt and Clapham, 2001) is intended to assess developmental level of vocabulary knowledge in general and therefore words are chosen on the basis of their frequencies of occurrence across a wide range of linguistic registers. At a mid-point on the continuum would be a test of academic English such as the TOEFL, which includes materials that have been drawn from a variety of topics but within academic registers. Construct Perspective and Specificity At first it may appear that specific purpose constructs and performance type constructs may be a natural match, whereas general purpose constructs naturally 252 An Introduction to Applied Linguistics go with ability constructs. In the examples provided above, the Occupational English and the Vocabulary Levels Test, this was the case. These two tests would be examples for numbers ‘3’ and ‘2’ in Figure 15.5, but one can also find examples of tests of specific purpose ability (1) and those intended to assess general purpose through performance (4). Specific purpose General purpose 1 2 3 4 Language ability Language performance Download 1.71 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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