Mastering the Requirements of Equivalency in the Evaluation of Competency in a Second Language

Abstract

As traditional language teaching does not produce the expected results, various solutions are readily proposed as a remedy. However, due to a lack of transposable measuring instruments, comparison of these various proposals’ results is very difficult. Two major impediments can be pointed out. First, how should pupils performances collected in different circumstances and by different types of evaluations be compared? Second, how can one objectively establish the difficulty level of statements understood and produced by pupils when classroom the situation differs, and moreover, are often described in an insufficiently explicit way This paper evaluates those difficulties and the solutions proposed to overcome them. A specific instrument was also developed that allows a definition of the difficulty level of statements, in accordance with the evaluations context and the classroom situation. A first test of this instrument, elaborated by means of the generalisation paradigm, appears in the second part.