Developing Descriptors from English Teachers’ Assessment Language

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop descriptors based on the assessment language of English teachers. Three experienced Japanese high school English teachers with more than five years of teaching experience were asked to watch video clips containing short interviews between Japanese university students with varying levels of English and a native speaker of English and to write down their assessments on the students' vocabulary, grammar, fluency, and pronunciation. The teachers' raw assessment language is then examined with reference to proficiency scales previously developed according to a quantitative method by Nekoda, Nekoda, & Miura (2007). The performance characteristics which are not covered by the existing scales are developed into 16 new descriptors (four levels in the above-mentioned four analytic categories). These descriptors can now be verified in the next step of a broader research project.