I'm conducting a research to measure the development of EFL students' grammar knowledge by using grammar tests focusing on parts of speech and tenses in the forms of multiple choices, short essays, and error recognition. What is the appropriate term of the measured variable? I really appreciate your responses.
Interesting question. I believe the terms haven't been used interchangeably. In fact it is not possible to dissociate competence from skills where according to some paradigms the latter is part of the former...as long as you opt for one construct try to stick to it with consistency
I see. Thank you so much @Mohamed Ridha Ben Maad, really appreciate it
I would say mostly theoretical grammatical skills. Having recently been in Cambridge and in contact with an EFL learning context I heard about this female professor studying English who was very good at English grammar and even corrected the teacher, but her proficiency in expressing herself in English was very limited.
@Jan Nylund, thank you so much for your thoughts. Really appreciate it
It actually depends very much on the test. This is really more of a question for language testing theory and the test in question. Some tests, such as the TOEFL, have specific questions designed to be psychometrics of various core English skills, whereas others are designed to simply test knowledge. It seems that perhaps you are asking do grammar tests measure "knowledge" (i.e. can an individual, given enough time, recall a fact or information) or "skill" (i.e. can an individual, rather instantaneously, make use of the knowledge to accomplish something, such as communicating an idea properly). A similar distinction is sometimes made in SLA (second language acquisition), referred to as the learning / acquisition distinction (someone who can solve a grammar problem after thinking about it for an extended time, but not actually produce it correctly in their free speech would be considered to have "learned" the grammar point, but not "acquired" it). I don't know what you mean by mastery though...
@Ryan Spring, yeah, I think so. Thank you so much for your response. Really appreciate it
The use of different terminology may require different type and criteria of test. For example, if you use the term 'mastery' it means the you test comprehensive knowledge of grammar. Then you will come to the intricacy of 'comprehensiveness of the type of grammar' that you may want to test. If you use 'skill', it means you test their ability in using grammar. It will require you to explore their ability in using the grammar in speaking and or writing. If you use the term competence, you will need to the test for both theoretical knowledge and application; both knowledge and skill. So, you need to match the definition of the terminology you use with the type of test that you will make. And then you can avoid using certain term that can mean something else.
@Sojuangon Rambe. Thank you so much for your response. Anyway, do you have any references regarding the definitions of skills, mastery, and competence and its boundaries in L2 learning?
I think it depends on your needs. better for you to decide the definition of the terminology that you will use first.
Thank you so much for your suggestions @Melvina and @Elbadri Abbas Elzubier. It helps a lot. Really appreciate it
It depends on the purpose and nature of the test you are conducting.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Correction