Authenticity Evaluation Of The Speaking Test Of ESL Placement Test

A consensus has been reached that the issue of authenticity is of much significance in language testing, especially in communicative language testing. The earliest concern about this issue started from Carroll's distinction between'integrative'and'discrete-point'approaches to language testing. In the past two or three decades, this issue has gained increasing attention from linguists worldwide. Language Testing dedicated an entire issue in 1985 to the publication of the papers centering on authenticity, which added to the importance of authenticity in language testing. Methods/opinions about authenticity in language testing are generally classified into four kinds: RL approach, IA approach, Correspondent approach and Spence-Brown's multi-dimensional approach.An increasing number of Chinese linguists are putting their attention and efforts at this issue. Their research and discussion mainly involve comparing and analyzing the above-mentioned various kinds of opinions about authenticity. Empirical research falls behind correspondent theoretical discussion about this issue. Few new theories or opinions about this have been put forth. Therefore, it is highly needed that research on authenticity in language testing be enriched and deepened.Based on the domestic and international research on the issue of authenticity, within the framework of Bachman's Communicative Language Ability and Communicative Language Testing and under the theoretical direction of Spence-Brown's multi-dimensional approach, the author of this thesis conducts a comprehensive analysis of authenticity of Regina University's ESL Placement Test speaking test. Two related research questions are raised in this research. To answer these two questions, the author adopts a combination of quantitative as well as qualitative analysis through various kinds of tools such as testing materials and questionnaire. The author did an experiment which involved 12 testers and 238 test-takers. In the subsequent section of this paper, the author analyzes the authentic degree of the speaking test of ESL Placement Test in an all-sided and detailed way.According to the research results, the author draws a conclusion that the general authentic degree of the speaking test of ESL Placement Test is medium. The authentic degree against CTTS and SCPS is evaluated to be quite high; while that against CC-TT-TLUT-S and IPS is evaluated to be quite low. In addition, result of qualitative analyses approximately coincides with the result of quantitative research. Due to the complexity of authenticity notion and difficulty of practical operation of this notion, the result of this research is not claimed to be objective and accurate to a hundred percent. The...