Master’s Degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Reading guide for Assessing Communicative Language Ability (Purpura, J. 2008)

Use the questions in this reading guide to analyse the scholarly discussion in the paper. Write your answers to the questions
and bring the completed guide with you to our session on 3rd November. In this session, each student will be held responsible
for conducting a discussion about some of the questions. Following the class discussion, the completed guide will be taken
for assessment.

Pg. 53 (par.2) - “(…) language testing researchers have proposed an array of theoretical models of L2 ability (…) Some of these
models (…) explicitly represent the components of the L2 ability construct along with their presumed interrelationships.”

1) What is the purpose/benefit of having a theoretical model for assessing L2?

The theoretical model outlines aspects of the input of information through various kinds of exposure to the language,
the storage of that information for the language learner, and the responses that are produced as a function of the
stored information. The operation of the theoretical model is explained in terms of learning processes and learning
strategies. Teacher refers to the obligatory relationships that hold between aspects of the model and are true for all
L2. If we don’t have theoretical models is just speculation.

2) What does the term L2 ability construct mean?

knowledge of components of language the models which represent the L2 ability to use this for communication (In this case).
Learners of L2 needs to manage all this features to be competent in the use of abilities to construct meaningful speech arts.
Construct: Language ability in communicative competence.

3) What does the author mean in the second part of the utterance (some of these…)?

Different components (multicomponential). Many things interact to develop the abilities for language in sense of
communication.

Pg. 53 (par.2) – “Examples of knowledge components specified in these models include, among others, grammatical
knowledge, lexical knowledge, discourse knowledge, sociolinguistic knowledge, and pragmatic knowledge.”

4) What does this statement mean?

It means that different aspects come together to comfort the CLA. Grammatical knowledge (structure and morphology),
lexical knowledge (words and vocabulary), discourse (general idea of a topic, hoe to structure text), sociolinguistic
(interacting, context) pragmatic (functions). Language ability is a compound of all this features therefore is no natural to
assess it by chunks.

Pg.54 - “The emphasis is on language use (…), with little explicit mention of the components of the language”

5) What does this sentence mean?

Language have different components, not only grammatical form, is not necessary to saturate ss with terminology. They
don’t need to know that, that information is just for the teacher to apply with them, ss just need to learn English not how to
learn, for example.

It is about the proficiency learner have with language, the performance and ability students have in situations of
communication. Finally, the goal while learning L2 is to be able to communicate with others.
Pg.54/55

6) What is the distinction made between formal elements of language and language skills?

Formal elements are the deeper learning element that each person has and language skills are manifestation, how to show
what you know or understand.

7) What conceptual understanding is salient in the discussion in the second paragraph of pg.55?

the conceptual understanding in the paragraph is that although different researchers claim that CLA is multicomponent, they
haven’t the conscious what those components are and they also disagree in how knowledge of these are organized in the
mind.

8) How do you test (or have you tested) language ability? How do you test the four skills? How do you test grammar and
vocabulary knowledge?

By doing speaking, writing, listening, reading activities. For example, after teaching a topic I apply activities like multiple
choice (listening), conversations, creating comics, read an English magazine and summarizing or doing an essay, interviews,
etc. Reading comprehension, role plays, presentations, etc.

Pg.56 (par.1) - “L2 proficiency was then inferred by the sum of the component scores for each skill.”

9) How is inference a part of testing in language learning? What is the role of inference in testing of language learning?

While testing a specific element, T can infer what proficiency SS have. By minimizing the influence of irrelevant input on SS
performance without adding significant additional sources of error test developers can increase the validity of the task
inference without sacrificing reliability.

Pg.56 (par. 2)

10) What do you understand by the terms discrete-point tasks and integrative tasks?

Discrete point tasks: isolate and measure the formal knowledge components separately. Is to evaluate only one skill or
component. Ex: Reading comprehension.

Interrogative tasks: assess the capacity to use several components of language knowledge at the same time. SS show what
they know. Ex: Writing, listening, speaking, etc.

Pg.57 (par.1) - “(…) the days of constructing assessments of language ability solely by means of discrete-point tasks of
grammatical knowledge or discrete-point tasks of grammatical knowledge elicited through the skills are long gone.”

11) Where do you stand? Is your assessment of a discrete-point or of an integrative nature? Is this in line with the language
learning philosophy of your institution?

I think I always try to assess all the abilities, but in my institution is strictly grammar teaching. In my school its practice the
discrete point assesses because the exams are yes-no, true-false answers, spelling, grammar items and of course multiple
choice tests. But what concert to my classes I think that language competence is a set of interacting abilities that cannot be
separated, so I try to blend all the abilities in my activities.

Pg.57 (par.3) – “In this model, a test taker’s language knowledge, along with his topical knowledge (…) and personal
characteristics, is hypothesized to interact with his strategic competence (…) and his affect. These components, in turn,
interact with the characteristics of the language-use or test-task situation.”

12) What does the above discussion mean?

Speaker must have the knowledge about a certain topic and also have the abilities in the extra linguistics features,
intercultural awareness, knowing the context. To know a language is meaningful, is necessary to understand the deeper
aspects to have and effective communication and to efficient to be understood.
Pg. 60 (par. 1) - “Consequently, he maintained, language testers interested in measuring language through content must
understand the contextual conditions impacting test performance, so that the relevant contextual features can be clearly
accounted for in design and in test score interpretation, and not, as others might have it, as part of the L2 knowledge
construct.”

13) What does the above excerpt mean?

To keep in mind, the real world. it’s important to apply the context, the real life conditions, weather, the classroom, etc. in
assessment and teaching. The context of the place is important when learning L2 must be important to construct new
knowledge and this is always created in context.

Pg. 63 (par.2) - “I would argue that in choosing test method, language testers must defer to the purpose of the test, the
contextual constraints of assessment, and the supposed claims we wish to make about what learners know and can do.”

14) How does the above excerpt connect with our earlier discussion about coherence among objectives, activities and
assessment?

Stern (1983, p. 340) notes that “if the ultimate objective of language teaching is effective language learning, then our main
concern must be the learning outcome‟.
productive language skills through performances which allow candidates to demonstrate the kinds of language skills that may
be required in a real world context. There must be a connection between objectives, activities and assessment, can’t be assess
something different to what was taught. PURPOSE

After the class discussion, you will be given some time to make necessary modifications to your answers (as a result of
the discussion). Then, you will submit the guide and it will be graded according to the following parameters:

Parameter Points
Answers correspond to the concepts in the questions 0.5
Answers are complete/ include sufficient explanation 2
Answers reveal a sound understanding of important concepts 2
Language use is conducive to easy comprehension 0.5
Total