The Diversity in an English Oral Proficiency Test

Abstract

There are many causes for the variation of the result in oral proficiency test such as the examiner, the task, the theme of the interview, and the gender of the participants. Previous literature documents that the rater is an important variable influencing test scores of second language oral proficiency. Although much research in language testing has been conducted concerning rater effect on test scores, there has been little attention paid to the effect of potential rater variables in language testing on their rating process. There are noticeably different contents of the rating scales across different speaking tests developed in different context. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to apply the same rating criteria for various tasks. In conclusion, we need more subject protocol analyses and more thoughtful studies on rating processes. In other words, the oral proficiency test needs a more realistic and valid tool for the assessment of second language proficiency. 요 약 영어 능력평가를 위한 테스트는 평가자, 과제, 인터뷰의 주제, 그리고 평가 받는 사람의 성별 등 여러 가지