Ground proficiency-scale comprehensibility descriptors in empirically identified linguistic measures¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article motivates its study by noting that "shortcomings of existing scales (e.g., vague descriptors) reflect limited empirical evidence as to which linguistic aspects influence listeners' judgments of L2 comprehensibility at different ability levels." The implied strategy is to build scale descriptors for comprehensibility from empirically identified linguistic measures, using the level-differentiated findings so that descriptors at each ability level reference the aspects that actually drive listener judgments at that level.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Empirical evidence linking specific linguistic measures to listener comprehensibility judgments at different ability levels.

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• adult L2 learners of English assessed on oral proficiency scales

Target Learning Goals¶

• accurate assessment of L2 speaking comprehensibility

Claims¶

• Five speech measures clearly distinguish L2 learners at different comprehensibility levels after data triangulation [+M]
• Grammatical and discourse-level measures differentiate between high-level L2 learners' comprehensibility [+M]
• Lexical richness and fluency measures differentiate between low-level L2 learners' comprehensibility [+M]
• Word stress errors discriminate between L2 learners of all comprehensibility levels [+M]

Related Strategies¶

• Rubrics

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Talia Isaacs and Pavel Trofimovich. (2012). DECONSTRUCTING COMPREHENSIBILITY: Identifying the Linguistic Influences on Listeners' L2 Comprehensibility Ratings. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Volume 34, Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263112000150