The Construct of Language Proficiency: Applications of psychological models to language assessment

220 Pages·1992·21.031 MB·

by  Ludo Verhoeven, John H.A.L. de Jong

THE CONSTRUCT OF LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

THE CONSTRUCT
OF
LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
Applications of Psychological Models
to Language Assessment
Edited by
LUDO VERHOEVEN and JOHN H.A.L. DE JONG
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
1992
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The construct of language proficiency : applications of psychological models to language
assessment / edited by Ludo Verhoeven and John H. A.L. de Jong.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Language and languages—Ability testing. 2. Language and languages--Study and
teaching-Psychological aspects. 3. Language acquisition. I. Verhoeven, Ludo Th. II.
Jong, John H.A.L. de, 1947- .
P53.4.C59 1992
407.6-dc20 92-23643
ISBN 90 272 2112 X (Eur.) /1-55619-461-7 (US) (alk. paper) CIP
© Copyright 1992 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or
any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. ·P.O. Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America • 821 Bethlehem Pike • Philadelphia, PA 19118 • USA
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction
1 Modeling and assessing language proficiency
John H.A.L. de Jong and Ludo Verhoeven
Section 1: First Language Proficiency
2 The construct of grammar in early language development 23
Folkert Kuiken
3 Dimensions in grammatical proficiency 33
Wim H.J. van Bon
4 Monitoring reading and spelling achievement 49
Martin J.C. Mommers and Johan H.L. Oud
5 Speech activity theory and reading comprehension assessment 61
Eduard Bol, Giel Gresnigt, and Mariette J. de Haan
6 Assessment of reading disabilities 71
Aryan van der Leij and Harry Smeets
7 Information analysis in written discourse 85
Carel van Wijk
8 Large scale writing assessment 101
Henk Blok and Kees de Glopper
vi
Section 2: Multilingual Proficiency
9 Differential item functioning 115
Frank Kok
10 Assessment of bilingual proficiency 125
Ludo Verhoeven
11 Self-assessment of minority language proficiency 137
Kees de Bot
12 Exploring the second language learner lexicon 147
Anne Vermeer
13 Modeling communicative second language competence 163
Ludo Verhoeven and Anne Vermeer
14 Modeling and assessing foreign language loss 175
Erik Schils and Bert Weltens
15 Dimensions in oral foreign language proficiency 187
John H.A.L. de Jong and Lieneke W. van Ginkel
Subject index 207
List of contributors 211
Preface
The purpose of this book is to open up new perspectives in the study of
language proficiency by bringing together current research from different fields
in psychology and in linguistics. The compartimentalization of science into
highly specialized fields on the one hand and the ubiquitous character of
language on the other, have led to the fragmentation of the study of language.
Educational psychologists, language pedagogs, and cognitive theorists have each
developed their views on language often quite independently, and generally
without communicating with linguists. The field of language testing defined as
a particular branch of applied linguistics, itself a subfield of linguistics, may
seem to illustrate this disjunctive development. On the other hand, language
testing being at the crossroads of applied psychological measurement and
applied linguistics has also the potential to restore the link between psychology
and linguistics.
In order to accomplish a multidisciplinary reader on language proficiency
the a symposium was organized at the First European Congress of Psychology
in Amsterdam in July 1989. A selected group of Dutch scholars from diverse
fields, but with a common interest in language related studies, was invited to
present papers on the operationahzation of the psychological construct of
language proficiency. Integration of the studies was explicitly sought by asking
all contributors to start out from empirical studies, and to relate these studies
to applications in language assessment. A third common denominator is that all
contributions are by Dutch researchers. For the international readership this
book can therefore also serve as a survey of recent developments in
psycholinguistic research in the Netherlands.
After the symposium in Amsterdam authors were asked to incorporate any
feedback they had received at the symposium and to prepare new versions of
their manuscripts for this book. In addition new contributions were invited to
ensure a more comprehensive and balanced coverage of the topic.
We wish to thank all contributors to this volume for redrafting their original
papers. Moreover, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Douglas
Stevenson and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier
draft of this volume. Finally, we would like to thank the text-processing
department of CITO, the Dutch National Institute for Educational Measurement,
for advice and kind support in producing the present book.

INTRODUCTION