Abstract

espanolLas investigaciones sobre la adquisicion de segundas lenguas (L2) han utilizado varios indicadores cuantitativos y cualitativos para medir la competencia oral. Sin embargo, hay poca investigacion empirica que compare dichas medidas. De hecho, las comparaciones con los referentes de hablantes nativos son especialmente raras. Cuatro de los indicadores cuantitativos que se aplican con mayor frecuencia en las investigaciones de L2 incluyen la proporcion type-token como medida de la diversidad lexica; el T-unit como medida de la complejidad sintactica; el error-free t-unit como medida de la precision gramatical; y la velocidad media de habla como medida de la fluidez. El presente estudio muestra una comparacion de cuatro indicadores de competencia oral basadas en el habla de tres hablantes no nativos de ingles durante la entrevista oral del International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Los resultados indican que los indicadores de complejidad y fluidez sintacticas se correlacionan con los valores de hablantes nativos; sin embargo, las medidas de precision gramatical y diversidad lexica no se correlacionan con los valores de hablantes nativos. De hecho, la medida de precision gramatical muestra una relacion inversa con respecto a los valores de hablantes nativos. Dichos resultados se analizan bajo la perspectiva del continuo precision-fluidez. Este resultado demuestra la importancia de determinar cuidadosamente que medida de competencia oral es apropriada para un contexto de Investigacion. EnglishResearch on second language acquisition has used various quantitative and qualitative measures to assess oral proficiency, yet there is little empirical research comparing these measures. Comparisons between quantitative measures and native speaker ratings are especially rare. Four of the most common quantitative measurements applied in L2 research include the type-token ratio as a measure of lexical diversity; the T-unit as a measure of syntactic complexity; the error-free t-unit as a measure of grammatical accuracy; and average speech rate as a measure of fluency. The present study compares these four quantitative measures of oral proficiency and one qualitative measure of oral proficiency, i.e., native speaker ratings, based on the speech of three non-native English speakers during the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) oral interview. The results indicate that measures of syntactic complexity and speed fluency correlate with native speaker ratings; however, the measure of lexical diversity does not correlate with the native speaker ratings. Interestingly, the measure of grammatical accuracy displays an inverse relationship to the native speaker ratings. These results are discussed in light of an accuracy-fluency continuum. This finding demonstrates the importance of careful consideration in determining which measure of oral proficiency is appropriate for a given research context

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