英语录音口试评分过程研究

A study of the process of assessing tape-mediated EFL speaking test performance

本文采用即时回溯、受激回忆等口头报告方法追踪了24名评分员在评判英语录音口试样本时的思维过程,探讨英语录音口试评分过程的本质和评分员的作用。本文发现:(1)评分员对评分标准的阐释和应用存在一致性和差异性;评分员参照考试标准和个人评判标准不断构建和再构建评分标准;(2)在评判语音语调、语法词汇和内容三个项目时,评分员侧重点不同,但普遍采用了假设—验证/修订的循环式评分方法,整个评分过程呈现动态性和循环性。根据以上结果,本文建立了录音口试评分过程模型,对评分过程的动态性和评分员的中心主体作用进行了描述。

This paper discusses both the nature of the scoring process and the role of raters in tape-mediated speaking performance assessment. A triangulation of qualitative methods, including concurrent/retrospective verbalization, stimulated recall and interview, were used to collect 24 raters＇ verbal reports and to gain insights into the rating process. It was found that the raters brought their personal criteria into the process by reinterpreting and reconstruc- ting the test criteria, and that the raters tended to assess different assessment categories （ i. e. content, pronunciation and intonation, grammar and vocabulary） in a cyclic way, focusing their primary attention on each category in turn, and assess each category in a cyclic hypothesis forming and testing process. Based on the empirical findings, a model of tape-mediated assessment is proposed, which depicts not only how a rater constructs and reconstructs rating criteria and makes scoring decisions dynamically and cyclically, but also the central role of a rater in the process. This model challenges the traditional view regarding the rater as an instrument and the rating process as linear.