Developing a reading proficiency scale for US college-level CSL courses: A complement to the ACTFL guidelines

Abstract

The ACTFL proficiency guidelines are instrumental in shaping foreign language teaching and testing at all grade levels in the United States. However, their limitations, such as the absence of theoretical underpinnings, empirical verification, and language-specific descriptors, greatly constrain their application in teaching and testing Chinese as a second language (CSL) reading in US higher education contexts. Teachers need guidance regarding what component reading skills and knowledge should be taught and measured, as well as their relative difficulties. This study develops a CSL reading proficiency scale as a complement to the ACTFL proficiency guidelines through a measurement-driven approach. The scale development began with modeling the construct of CSL reading ability, as conceptualized in theoretical works. Drawing on this process, an operational descriptive scheme and a descriptor pool were established and subjected to expert review. Descriptors of CSL reading ability that survived the expert review were compiled into a Likert-scale questionnaire. Difficulties of descriptors were operationalized through teachers’ ratings (N = 179) of whether CSL learners ‘can do’ what these descriptors denoted. The Rasch Rating Scale Model was then utilized to examine the measurement quality of the questionnaire, to calibrate teachers’ ratings, and to group the descriptors to associate them with the ACTFL proficiency levels. Finally, a four-level progression scale with 56 descriptors specifying characteristics of each level on the ACTFL reading proficiency continuum was established. Besides its application in teaching, the CSL reading proficiency scale will benefit testing and textbook writing.