Abstract
This study investigated English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners' strategic competence in the computer-assisted integrated speaking tests (CAIST) through the development and validation of the Strategic Competence Inventory for Computer-assisted Speaking Assessment (SCICASA). Based on our review of the literature on the CAIST, strategic competence, and available instruments for measuring the construct, we defined EFL learners' strategic competence in the CAIST as learners' use of four metacognitive strategies: Planning, problem-solving, monitoring, and evaluating, with each of them consisting of various components. These metacognitive strategies formulated the four factors and scale items of the SCICASA under validation. An exploratory factor analysis of responses from 254 EFL students and the subsequent confirmatory factor analysis of data collected on another sample of 242 students generated 23 items under the four factors. The high validity and reliability of the SCICASA reveal that EFL learners' strategic competence operates in the forms of the four metacognitive strategies in the CAIST. This will lend some new supporting evidence for Bachman and Palmer's (2010) strategic competence model while providing implications for metacognitive instructions and test development. Concomitantly, the findings show the inventory as a valid instrument for measuring strategic competence in computer-assisted foreign/second language (L2) speaking assessment and relevant research arenas and beyond.
Highlights
The motivation of this study has to do with one of the authors’ teaching experience related to the computer-assisted integrated speaking test (CAIST) in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classrooms
As our research focus was on strategic competence and the research context where the inventory is expected to be applied is computer-assisted L2 speaking assessment, in developing the inventory, we regarded reading, listening, and speaking involved in the CAIST as a macro speaking modality that integrates reading and listening as a prior knowledge provider rather than independent language skills in line with the interpretation of the test format by English Testing Service (ETS) (ETS, 2021a), the developer and organizer of the TOEFL iBt
The results showed that the strength of the relationships between variables was statistically significant: χ2 = 4740.273, p < 0.001, which evidenced that the number of the items (N = 40) of the draft Strategic Competence Inventory for Computer-assisted Speaking Assessment (SCICASA) was statistically sufficient for an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) procedure (Byrne, 2016; Kline, 2016)
Summary
The motivation of this study has to do with one of the authors’ teaching experience related to the computer-assisted integrated speaking test (CAIST) in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classrooms. The CAIST measures EFL learners’ speaking ability associated with their strategic competence. Such ability is highly valued in tertiary education and is considered as one of the central factors affecting academic success as well as for engaging learners for sustainable growth in language proficiency (Zhang and Zhang, 2019; Teng and Zhang, 2020). When performing the CAIST, students often do not achieve what teachers expect them to achieve, as observed in the classroom teaching This can be regarded as a concrete example that suggests the necessity of researching EFL learners’ strategic competence in the CAIST for helping them achieve academic success (Bachman and Palmer, 2010; Frost et al, 2020)
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