Correlation Between EBB Scale Scores and CAF Indices : Evidence from Speakers' Actual Performances

• Yokouchi Yuichiro

Abstract

This study aims to observe whether empirically derived, binary-choice, boundary definition (EBB) scales for the assessment of English proficiency directly reflect the complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) of utterances. Although EBB scales have been shown to be valid, reliable, and practical, it is difficult to generalize their findings to other tasks or groups of test-takers. Thus, if EBB scales are not applied appropriately, their result are unreliable. Despite this issue, EBB scales can assist in the assessment of language because they are easy to apply and their results are easy to understand for learners. This study used data from Yokouchi (2018) and examined the correlation between that study scores on the Hirai and Koizumi (2013) EBB scale and various CAF indices, including words per minute, errors per analysis-of-speech-unit (AS-unit) (Foster, Tonkyn, & Wigglesworth, 2000), and words per AS-unit. The results indicate that there is only a limited correlation between learners’ EBB scale scores and their CAF value indices. This indicates that if EBB scales include many constructs, they do not work well; in other words, EBB scales should include only one construct to be more intelligible and yield better results.

Journal

• Learner Corpus Studies in Asia and the World

  Learner Corpus Studies in Asia and the World 5 67-78, 2020-12-21

  神戸大学国際コミュニケーションセンター

Keywords

• Rubric
• EBB scales
• CAF

Details

• CRID: 1390572174910028416
• NII Article ID: 120006942791
• DOI: 10.24546/81012490
• ISSN: 24352632
• ISSN: 21876746
• HANDLE: 20.500.14094/81012490
• Text Lang: en
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • IRDB
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN
• Abstract License Flag: Allowed