Journal | EL.LE
Journal issue | 13 | 1 | 2024
Research Article | Examinees’ Four Skills Performance Balance in High Stake Foreign Language Examinations
Abstract
The present study aims to investigate the balance of the examinees’ performances in different skills tests as part of a foreign language examination. In many cases, the examinees’ performances in the four skills present significant deviations. This deviation raises the question of whether it is an indication of an error in the construction or rating of the test or whether it is an expected result. In order to explore this question, a study was conducted using real data collected from 8715 candidates who participated in Italian language exams, administered by the Greek State Certificate Language Proficiency System (KPG), between 2011 and 2015 (ten sessions). The data were analysed with Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and indicated that there is no balance between the performances of the examinees in the different skills tests.
Submitted: Feb. 1, 2023 | Accepted: Jan. 24, 2024 | Published March 22, 2024 | Language: en
Keywords Skills integration • Foreign language testing • Four skills performance balance • Skills segregation • Language certification
Copyright © 2024 Antonio Venturis, Julie Vaiopoulou. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/ELLE/2280-6792/2024/01/002