A Study On The Scale Of ERSKAC For Chinese College Students

The study of language proficiency scales has a history of nearly sixty years. Researches on language proficiency scales abroad are abundant and the research methods are more and more mature, while domestic researches mainly focus on introducing the development processes, research methods and theadvantages and disadvantages of foreign language proficiency scales, but researches on how to construct the language proficiency scales are rare. In addition, the relevant researches about ERSKACmainly concentrate on the analysis and application of the discourse, with a lack the combination with the language proficiency scales. Under the current background of China Standards of English, with the combination of ERSKAC and language proficiency scales, this thesis takes Chinese college students as the target group and investigates how to construct the scale of ERSKAC for Chinese college students.Based on Bachman’s Communicative Language Ability and Mann& Thompson’s Rhetorical Structure Theory, we use qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the following two questions:(1) What are the dimensions of the scale of ERSKAC for Chinese college students?(2) What are the levels of the scale of ERSKAC for Chinese college students? In view of the above two questions, the author has carried out the following specific research steps: First of all, we collect 196 descriptors which are well-matched with the ability of Chinese college students from language proficiency scales, curriculum standards, English textbooks and so on at home and abroad. And in accordance with the five principles(definiteness, clarity, brevity, independence and positiveness) of the construction of CEFRand relevant principle as well as three-element model, we edit these descriptors by adopting various ways, such as translating, modifying, unpacking, packing and so forth. Ultimately, 91 descriptors are retained after the discussion of the panel of experts for these revised descriptors. Subsequently, on the basis of communicative language ability theory, the descriptors are divided into four dimensions, andintra-rater’s consistency and experts’ consistency are used to verify the rationality of the dimensions of these descriptors. Consequently, questionnaires are adopted to investigate the difficulty levels of descriptors. The subjects are 26 college teachers from different levels of colleges and universities. The results are statistically analyzed by using the Multi-facet Rasch model to determine the ultimate levels of these descriptors.The results are as follows:(1) The scale of ERSKAC for Chinese college students can be divided into four dimensions, namely, narration, description, comparison and classification. The number of the descriptors is 36, 33, 13 and 9 respectively.(2) The scale of ERSKAC for Chinese college students can be graded into three levels; they are low level, intermediate level and advanced level. It needs to be noted that there are only intermediate level and advanced level in descriptors of comparison and classification, while low level is of deficiency. Research results show that the collection and editing of descriptors is the foundation for the construction of the scale of ERSKAC for Chinese college students. The sources of descriptors should be comprehensive, representative and authoritative. Meanwhile, definiteness, clarity, brevity, independence and positiveness are also needed for descriptors. Classification and scaling of descriptors are the key steps, so classification should have a solid theoretical basis, while scaling should be supported by qualitative and quantitative evidence, thus ensuring the validity of the scale. Hopefully, the construction of the scale of ERSKAC for Chinese college students can provide valuable guidance for English language teaching and explanation of test scores. And it is expected to provide reference for the development of China Standards of English.