Diagnostic Assessment of Interactional Competence in Paired Speaking Tests: Investigating Rating Accuracy of Iranian EFL Learners

Journal of Language and Translation

مقالات آماده انتشار، اصلاح شده برای چاپ، انتشار آنلاین از تاریخ 14 آذر 1402

نوع مقاله: Research Articles

شناسه دیجیتال (DOI): 10.30495/ttlt.2022.1953892.2087

نویسندگان

Masoome Azmoode Sis Abad¹؛ Gholamreza Kiany^{* 2}؛ Gholam-Reza Abbasian³

¹Department of English, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran

²Department of English, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran

³Department of English, Imam Ali University, Tehran, Iran

چکیده

Assessment of interactional competence (IC) as a multicomponential construct poses several challenges for both teachers and administrators. Having a diagnostic assessment perspective through stakeholders’ involvement, this mixed methods study attempts to provide information about students’ strengths and weaknesses in IC. The paper first explored the distinctive effects of self- and peer -diagnostic assessments on the development of Iranian EFL learners’ IC; it then examined the accuracy of the learners’ diagnostic assessment of IC in paired speaking tests. The learners’ perception toward the application of diagnostic assessment was also investigated qualitatively. To this end, 60 students majoring in English translation at Islamic Azad University participated in this study. Taking instructors’ ratings as the criterion, over the course of 12 weeks, the accuracy of subjects’ self and peer diagnostic assessments was investigated. Data analysis, using T-test and MANOVA, confirmed that while the two groups of self and peer diagnostic assessments had considerable improvement in IC, there was not any significant difference between the two groups’ gain. In addition, no statistically significant difference was found between the accuracy of self-, peer –diagnostic assessments and those of teacher assessments throughout the course. Furthermore, the results showed that the participants held favorable perception toward the application of diagnostic assessment.

کلیدواژه‌ها

Assessment stakeholders؛ Diagnostic assessment؛ Interactional competence؛ Paired speaking tests