Assessing Foreign Language Skills: Data from Russian

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the speaking, reading, listening, and writing proficiency of students of Russian after 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years of study using tests based on the ACTFL proficiency scale in order to gather empirical data on proficiency levels currently attainable within the context of academic Russian language programs. The following questions were considered: (a) What are the proficiency levels of students of Russian in the four skills after 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years of study? (b) Is there a significant positive correlation between proficiency levels in the four skills and levels of study, and what, if any, conclusions can be drawn from the findings with regard to basing language requirements of the ACTFL scale? (c) Is there a significant positive correlation among proficiency levels in the four skills? (d) What problems are associated with setting proficiency standards for foreign language (FL) study which are based on the ACTFL Guidelines? Results indicated that each additional year of study resulted in a decrease in the proportion of lower proficiency learners and a concomitant increase in the proportion of learners at the next higher level, but the picture of proficiency that emerged from this study is one of overlapping ranges of performances with no exact correspondence between levels of study and levels of proficiency in speaking, reading, listening, and writing. The correlations among the four skills were not particularly strong, suggesting that they follow different paths of development which do not always parallel each other. Concerns about using the 1986 AC7FL Guidelines for setting curricular goals for language study and for test development are discussed.