On Measuring Communicative Competence: A Case Study on the Construct Validity of the Assessment Practice of an EFL Program

The construct of communicative competence has been greatly emphasized in second language teaching at different levels of education. The purpose of this study is to examine the construct validity of the assessment practice of a Freshman EFL for Non-Majors (FENM) program that stresses communicative competence. The methods of this study include an inspection of both the assessment practice recommended in the Teachers' Handbook, Freshman English for Non-Majors 2002-2003 ('FENM Teachers' Handook,' 2002) and samples of the FENM program-wide exams, and interviews with three experienced teachers on their assessment practice. The findings indicate that the test format (multiple-choice questions) used in the program-wide exams of reading and listening does not match the characteristics of communicative language testing. Consequently, students' reading and listening skills that are measured do not permit teachers to predict the students' ability to use the skills to negotiate with others successfully in a naturalistic situation. The oral assessments often times do not allow authentic interaction to take place since most teachers let students write and memorize the scripts before the oral assessment. As a result, it is difficult to measure an important attribute of communicative competence-students' ability to process unpredictable data in real time. Overall, the construct validity of the assessment program appears to be low. The results of this study may spur teachers of CC-oriented programs to reflect upon whether their test practice measures what they intend to measure, and what can be done to increase construct validity of their tests. Recommendations on using authentic tasks and guidelines to increase construct validity of communicative language testing are provided at the end of this article. 在第二語言教學不同的教育層次中，溝通能力一直深受重視。此研究的目的在探究大一非英文主修課程中，評量實施的建構效度，此課程強調溝通能力。研究方式包括檢閱2002-2003非主修英文大一英文的教師手冊和課程延伸的考試所建議的評量實施、以及與3名資深的教師面談探討其評量實施。研究發現指出，運用在閱讀與聽力測驗中的評量型式（多重選擇題）並不符合溝通式評量的特性。所施測到學生們的閱讀能力以及聽力，並無法使得老師們預測到學生們是否能在自然情境內成功地與他人溝通。因為大部分的老師在口語測驗之前，就讓學生們寫下或背誦底稿，因此有時候口語測驗並未使得自然的互動發生。結果也就非常困難測驗出溝通能力中重要的因素－也就是學生在日常生活中所處理無法預知資訊的能力。總之，這些評量的建構效度顯然太低了。此研究結果也許能促使以溝通能力導向課程的教師們，反省其評量方式是否有達到想測量的內容、以及該完成什麼以增進其效度。為了增加溝通式測驗的建構效度，文章結尾建議可使用模仿真實情境為題材的任務活動以及指導方針。