Subjective judgments of L2 oral narratives among native speakers, non-native teachers, and peers

抄録

The purpose of this study was to compare the perceptions of Japanese learners' oral proficiency by rater groups with different backgrounds. Three rater groups participated in the study: 12 native teachers of English (NT), 14 non-native teachers of English (NNT), and 42 non-native learners of English (NNL). They all listened to one-minute oral narratives of 20 Japanese university students and made a subjective judgment based on four linguistic categories (fluency, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary). Statistical analyses of the data indicate that the three rater groups do not differ significantly from one another in their perceptions. The study implies that with no special training provided or marking protocols at hand, peer evaluation has potential as a measure of the spoken language.