‫مركز بحوث كلية الآداب‬
‫المؤلف‬
‫العنوان‬
‫سلسلة الإصدار‬
‫ إبراهيم الفالي‬.‫د‬
Telling the rest ot
the Story….
57
‫قسم اللغة االجنليزية‬
‫سنة الإصدار‬
‫م‬1998 / ‫هـ‬1419
ABSTRACT
Language ability, especially foreign language proficiency,
has become a hot topic in language testing research. Among the
models and hypotheses proposed to account for and explain
foreign language proficiency, two major hypotheses have been
the most widely cited and investigated in the literature. Harris's
separate abilities hypothesis claims that foreign language
proficiency is composed of different separate abilities, each
concerned with a modality of the foreign language skills.
Consequently, discrete point tests were proposed as the optimal
measurement tools to assess the different skills and modalities of
language proficiency. Oller, in his unitary competence
hypothesis (UCH), on the contrary, deemed that there is one
general factor underlying the various features of the foreign
language in their different modalities. Hi proposes integrative
of pragmatic tests to be he best choice in assessing language
proficiency.
Oller and other researchers who empirically supported
either hypothesis used subjects with moderately high proficiency
in English ranging from 450 to 550 in the TOEFL. This study,
however, identified a stage in language proficiency prior to
those reported in the literature. The subjects involved came
from four different proficiency levels with an average score in
the TOEFL ranging from 232 to 388. In addition, two types of
data were used in his study: subjects scores on the four different
skill tests of English as well as the achievement test in grammar
in addition to their scores in the TOEFL.
Among the major findings of this study were: although the
different proficiency and achievement tests loaded heavily on
the general factor, there were also significant loadings on other
factors. The achievement reading comprehension test of the
preparatory students loaded significantly on a second factor. In
addition, the achievement speaking and listening tests of the
intermediate students loaded significantly on a third factor. The
achievement tests on the different factors were heavier than the
loadings of three section of the TOEGL. This disparity could be
ascribed to the difficulty level of the TOEGL although it seems
that as subjects of this stud become more proficient in English,
similar skills tests and TOEGL sections tests will load on the
same factors, thus resembling subjects in other studies reported
in the literature. In addition, the results of this study explain why
the correlations between the different skill tests and the
integrative tests (for example, cloze testing procedure, c-test,
and multiple- choice cloze test) are almost of similar values in
low proficiency level: whereas, the correlations between the
integrative tests and the tests of reading comprehension are
higher than the correlations between the integrative tests and the
other skills tests in high proficiency levels this study concluded
by proposing a definition for foreign language proficiency based
on a viewpoints which regards it as a continuum with different
point on that continuum representing different proficiency
levels. The use of both discrete point tests and integrative tests
while assessing foreign language proficiency is more profitable
than using either approach per se.