Analyzing oral proficiency test performance in general and specific purpose contexts

Abstract

To investigate whether a field-specific oral proficiency test, constructed by manipulating test method facets, would be a better predictor of field-specific performance than a general purpose oral proficiency test, 31 Chinese chemistry graduate students were given three English tests: the field specific test, the general purpose test and a chemistry teaching performance test. Results suggested that when raters of the performance test were asked to recommend specifically whether or not a subject should be allowed to actually teach chemistry in a lab or classroom, the field-specific test was a better predictor than the general purpose test. The paper contains a theoretical discussion of field-specific language testing and guidelines for the construction of oral proficiency tests in specific purpose contexts.