English Language Tests, School Language Use, and Achievement in Spanish-Speaking High School Students

Abstract

* This study investigated the relationship between two types of oral English language tests and various measures of language use and school performance. The tests assessed linguistic competence (LC), defined as the control of simple grammatical structures, and communicative competence (CC), defined as the ability to convey information. The subjects were thirty-five Spanish-speaking high school students in grades 10 through 12. Three main research questions were posed. The first dealt with the relationship between LC and CC. Initial correlational analysis indicated that LC predicted CC. However, scatterplots showed great variation in CC at all levels of LC; furthermore, the LC test and the CC test were moderately correlated (Pearson r = .456). To better distinguish these two types of second language skills, additional analysis using a Principal Components procedure (Harman 1976, Anderson 1958) was done. This proved useful in expressing differences in student language skills and in the patterns of self-report data on language use. The second major research question dealt with the relationships between the LC and CC test scores and six measures of performance in English discussion groups. Two variables, total informative statements and range of informative categories, measured the quantity of English used. Both of these were strongly related to the LC test and to the overall degree of second language skill represented in the common component. Results for the four criterion measures of quality of English used in discussion were more varied. T-unit measures (Hunt 1964) were employed to assess quality of language, and results depended on the aspect of oral language examined. Mean length of T-unit was significantly related to CC; mean length of error-free T-unit and the ratio of error-free to all T-units were strongly related to LC; and ratio of complex to all T-units was related to neither the language tests nor the principal components. The third research question dealt with the relationships among the LC and