A Study On The Scale Of ELC For Chinese Middle School Students

Language proficiency scales have been studied for m ore than sixty years. Related researches abroad are abundant with mature methods while researches at home mainly focus on introducing the research methods and research processes of language profic iency scales and discussing their merits and demerits. And lexical co mpetence has been st udied mainly from two perspectives: dimensions of vocabulary knowledge and breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge. However, it has been seldom studied from the perspective of constructi ng a language com petence scale. Chinese Ministry Education has started to develop China Standards of English since 2014. Under this background, this thesis tries to construc t an English lexical com petence(ELC) scale fo r Chinese m iddle school students.On the basis of Bachman’s Comm unicative Language Ability and Nation’s Vocabulary Knowledge Framework, this thesis aim s at probing into the following two questions:(1) what are the dimensions of the ELC scale for Chinese middle school student s?(2) what are the levels of the ELC scale for Chine se middle school st udents? In order to answer the above two questions, the steps take n are as follows. Firstl y, 308 descriptors concerned with ELC are collected from language proficiency scales, examination outlines, text books and some other materials. We edit all the collected descriptors, w ith reference to three-element model and the five principles of editing descri ptors, that is, definiteness, clarity, brevity, independence and positivene ss and by adopting the methods of translation, adaption, splitting, combination, and self-written form. After that, all the edited descriptors are pr esented to a panel for the auditing purpose and 102 de scriptors are remained; secondly, the descriptors are classified into three dimensions: breadth of vocabulary knowledge, depth of vocabulary knowledge and overall de scriptions based on theoretical foundations. Subsequently, the remaining descriptors are graded into four levels provisionally through being discussed by experts and referring to the original levels of the descriptors. Finally, the dimensions and levels of the ELC scale for Chin ese middle school stude nts are validated. Four experts are invited to classify th e descriptors. Intra-rater’s and inter-raters’ consistency is tested to validate the rationality of the classification of descriptors. 31 experienced teachers from Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hubei and some other provinces are invited to judge the difficulty level of the descriptors followed by an analysis of the results through the use of MFRM, which is to set the ultimate levels for the descriptors.The research findings are as follows :(1) there are t hree dimensions in the scale: breadth of vocabulary knowledge, depth of vocabulary knowledge, and overall descriptions. The number of the descriptors is 22, 73, and 7 respectively;(2) the scale has been divided into low level, intermediate level and advanced level. One point t o mention is that the descriptors of the overall descriptions all belong to the advanced level. The results also show that when developing the ELC scale for Chinese middle school students, collection and editing of the descriptors are th e foundation so the sources of them should be comprehensive, typical and authoritative, and the descriptors them selves should be definite, clear, brief, independent, and positive; cl assifications and scaling of the descriptors are the key steps so the former should be based on theoretical basis and the latter should be supported by qualitative and quantitative data to ensure the validity of the scal e. It is expected that the ELC scal e for Chinese middle school students can not only provide some guidance for the English vocabulary teaching and assessing in m iddle schools but also be of reference for the construction of China Standards of English.