چکیده:
Pragmatic assessment and consistency in rating are among the subject matters which are still in need of more profound investigations. The importance of the issue is highlighted when remembering that inconsistency in ratings would surely damage the test fairness issue in assessment and lead to much diversity in ratings. Our principal concern in this study was observing the criteria that American and Iranian EFL/ESL teachers consider when rating Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic productions regarding the speech act of compliment. The instrument utilized in this study was WDCTs and a speech act rating questionnaire administered to sixty American and sixty Iranian EFL/ESL teachers. In order to come up with the criteria, the reasoning and justifications of the raters when rating learners’ pragmatic productions were analyzed carefully through content analysis. The results showed that overall the raters considered nine general criteria when rating. They included: “Strategy use”, “Affective factors”, “Politeness”, “Interlocutors’ relationships”, “Linguistic accuracy”, “Sincerity”, “Authenticity”, “Fluency”, and “Cultural issues”. Also, the most frequent criterion among the native and non-native raters was “Strategy use” and “Politeness” respectively. Finally, it was concluded that due to some inconsistencies and variations in the ratings and criteria of both native and non-native raters, it seems that both groups are in need of pragmatic workshops and training sessions. The results of this study can have important implications for EFL/ESL teacher educators who are considerate of the importance of pragmatic training and instruction.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Native and Non-native English Teachers’ Rating Criteria and Variation in the Assessment of L2 Pragmatic Production: The Speech Act of Compliment Minoo Alemi Assistant Professor, Department of TEFL, Tehran-west Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iran Atefeh Rezanejad Ph. D.
Our principal concern in this study was observing the criteria that American and Iranian EFL/ESL teachers consider when rating Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic productions regarding the speech act of compliment.
g. Ang-Aw & Goh, 2011; Du, Wright, & Brown, 1996; Eckes, 2008; Galloway, 1980; Johnson & Lim, 2009; Lim, 2011; Orr, 2002; Plough, Briggs, & Van Bonn, 2010; Roch, 2007; Schaefer, 2008; Wigglesworth, 1994; Zhang & Elder, 2011).
In this study we asked Iranian and American EFL/ESL teachers of English (NES and NNES raters) to rate Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic productions regarding the speech act of compliment.
What criteria are used by native and non-native English speaking raters in rating the speech act of compliment produced by EFL learners?
Data Analysis This study focused on the criteria that native and non-native EFL/ESL teachers consider while rating Iranian pragmatic productions regarding the speech act of compliment.
RESULTS NES-NNES Raters’ Compliment Criteria Our first research question in this study was: (1) What criteria are used by native and non-native English speaking raters in rating the speech act of compliment produced by EFL learners?
DISCUSSION The main goal of this research study was exploring the criteria that native and non-native English speaking raters consider during rating EFL learners’ pragmatic productions regarding the speech act of compliment.