Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


osu1308321284.pdf (4.83 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Developing a Culture-Based Rating Criterion Model for Assessing Oral Performances in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

Chen, Guangyan
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1308321284

Abstract Details

2011, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, East Asian Languages and Literatures.
The study develops a culture-based rating criterion model for assessing oral performances in teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language in the United States. Two problems in the current language assessment area suggest the need for such a model. First, most current Foreign Language (FL) proficiency guidelines claim to assess the communicative competence of a FL speaker. However, dimensions of communicative competence have not been adopted unanimously. Second, proficiency tests claim to assess learners’ communicative competence by providing a global rating. Nevertheless, few proficiency guidelines provide a way of using one unitary rating to assess multi-dimensional competence. The study develops a culture-based rating criterion model to compensate for the problems outlined above. Accordingly, the study answers five research questions: 1. which scale should be used to assess oral performances: a global scale or analytic scales? 2. Which rating criteria can be used to assess oral performances? 3. What are the relationships between overall proficiency and analytic scales? 4. Upon whose standards should the rating criteria be based: Teacher(s) of Chinese (TC), Naïve Native speaker(s) of Chinese (NNC), or experts in language assessment? 5. Does proficiency level affect the rating criterion pattern? The study involves the following procedures. First, three American learners were videotaped individually. Then, each video was placed online. Second, descriptive items relevant to the videos were generated in order to evaluate the three learners’ performances. Then the subjects of the study (TC/NNC) went online and evaluated learner performances using these items. Finally, I ran two statistical procedures—factor analysis and analysis of variance—to analyze the data. The rating criterion model developed in this study consists of the following aspects. The number of rating criteria was retained as six. The six rating criteria can be determined from the ten statistically independent rating criteria identified in this study based on individual needs and specific assessment purposes. In the six-criterion structure, the criteria of communication appropriateness, Chinese cognitive patterns, and positive evaluation from the communication perspective were relatively more important than other rating criteria in determining the overall proficiency level of the speaker. The six-criterion structure accounted for 50% of the global rating of an oral performance, rather than 100% of it as usually assumed. The above rating criterion model was based on the following assumptions, which were either validated by the results of this study or defended over the course of the study. First, the language rating scale is a multidimensional structure. Therefore analytic rating scales are proposed in this study. However, TC/NNC tend to prioritize the two most important rating criteria when assessing learner oral performances. Second, proficiency level did not affect the rating criterion pattern. Third, there were no significant differences between TC’s and NNC’s rating criterion pattern. Fourth, this study argues for TC’s and NNC’s judgments as the rating standards that experts in CFL assessment should consult. 
Galal Walker (Committee Chair)
Mari Noda (Committee Member)
Marjorie K.M. Chan (Committee Member)
Danielle Ooyoung Pyun (Committee Member)
304 p.
Foreign Language
Oral performance assessment; Exploratory factor analysis; Rating criteria

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Chen, G. (2011). Developing a Culture-Based Rating Criterion Model for Assessing Oral Performances in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1308321284

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Chen, Guangyan. Developing a Culture-Based Rating Criterion Model for Assessing Oral Performances in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. 2011. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1308321284.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Chen, Guangyan. "Developing a Culture-Based Rating Criterion Model for Assessing Oral Performances in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1308321284

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1308321284
948
© 2011, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.