Maisa Martin

Assessing learners’ writing skills in a SLA study: Validating the rating process across tasks, scales and languages

There is still relatively little research on how well the CEFR and similar holistic scales work when they are used to rate L2 texts. Using both multifaceted Rasch analyses and qualitative data from rater comments and interviews, the ratings obtained by using a CEFR-based writing scale and the Finnish National Core Curriculum scale for L2 writing were examined to validate the rating process used in the study of the linguistic basis of the CEFR in L2 Finnish and English. More specifically, we explored the quality of the ratings and the rating scales across different tasks and across the two languages. As the task is an integral part of the data-gathering procedure, the relationship of task peformance across the scales and languages was also examined. We believe the kinds of analyses reported here are also relevant to other SLA studies that use rating scales in their data-gathering process.

Computer game as a tool for training the identification of phonemic length.

Abstract Computer-assisted training of Finnish phonemic length was conducted with 7-year-old Russian-speaking second-language learners of Finnish. Phonemic length plays a different role in these two languages. The training included game activities with two- and three-syllable word and pseudo-word minimal pairs with prototypical vowel durations. The lowest accuracy scores were recorded for two-syllable words. Accuracy scores were higher for the minimal pairs with larger rather than smaller differences in duration. Accuracy scores were lower for long duration than for short duration. The ability to identify quantity degree was generalized to stimuli used in the identification test in two of the children. Ideas for improving the game are introduced.

Chapter 2.03.02: Designing and Assessing L2 Writing Tasks Across CEFR Proficiency Levels

With the advent of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for the learning, teaching and assessment of modern languages, there have been renewed calls for the integration of the research perspectives of language testing and second language acquisition across Europe. The project Cefling was set up in 2006 with this purpose in mind. In the project our aim is to describe the features of language that L2 learners use at various levels of language proficiency defined by the CEFR scales. For this purpose, L2 Finnish and L2 English data were collected from young and adult L2 learners by using a set of communicative L2 writing tasks. In the course of the project, the different understandings of what the purpose of an L2 writing task is needed to be reconciled not only in the minds of researchers but also in research design. In what follows, we will discuss the issues involved in designing and assessing L2 tasks for SLA and language testing purposes by using the design and assessment procedures in the project as a case in point. We will also present some of our findings to illustrate how statistical procedures such as multifaceted Rasch analysis can be used to examine task difficulty.

Suomi ja viro oppijan mielessä. Näkökulmia taivutusmuotojen prosessointiin

Kielenoppijan aidinkielen eli lahdekielen (L1) ja opittavan kielen eli kohdekielen (L2) rakenteita ja sanastoa vertaillaan usein toisiinsa, koska havaittujen erojen ja yhtalaisyyksien oletetaan olevan jossakin suhteessa kielenoppimisen kulkuun ja oppijoiden kielellisiin tuotoksiin. Oletus perustuu kaytannon kokemuksiin, mutta enenevasti myos tutkimustietoon (ks. erityisesti Kaivapalu 2005). Lahde- ja kohdekielen suhteen olemuksen tutkimuksellinen maaritteleminen on kuitenkin haastavampi ja mutkikkaampi tehtava kuin pelkka kielten ja oppijoiden puheen ja kirjoituksen vertailu.