Investigating the assessability of speaking proficiency in a group discussion context

The main purpose of this exploratory study was to attempt to measure the construct of speaking proficiency in a group discussion context. Although peer-discussion activities are commonly used in ESL/EFL classrooms, little is known about how to adapt this format for testing purposes and whether it can be done so reliably. In this study, an analytic rubric was used to assess the proficiency of Japanese university students during group discussions. Rasch (MFRM) analysis was then conducted to investigate the extent to which the students, raters, and category items (i.e., subcategories of the rubric) fit the model. Results showed that although the raters differed in terms of severity, they maintained internal consistency, therefore allowing MFRM to control for this disparity. Following this procedure, students could be separated into approximately three levels of proficiency. Furthermore, all category items fit the model sufficiently well to conclude that a single construct was being measured. These findings support the idea that group oral testing can be conducted reliably as an aspect of L2 speaking assessment. Keywords: group speaking assessment, Rasch analysis, facets, MFRM