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Comprehensibility in Language Assessment

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Comprehensibility is considered central to successful communication (Munro & Derwing, 1995a, 2007). Yet, despite the crucial role it plays in communication and the contribution it makes towards the assessment of spoken language ability, comprehensibility has occupied an ambiguous position in language testing. At times, it is feature-driven, taking a linguistically-atomistic approach with little reference to context or communicative purpose, treating comprehensibility as an abstract construct made up only of linguistic components. At other times, the assessment of comprehensibility is an intuitive action, relying on a holistic sense of understanding by the assessor and rarely going beyond the speaker’s utterances to include listener characteristics. The lack of a perspective that encompasses broader linguistic and socio-pragmatic factors that contribute to achieving meaning in spoken language has motivated us to propose the current manuscript as an approach to understanding, defining and assessing comprehensibility. In this monograph, we argue that conceptualising comprehensibility as a multidimensional construct and adopting a broader perspective to understanding and analysing it for communication purposes would benefit the fields of second language assessment and second language acquisition.

Published: Feb 1, 2024

Series


Section Chapter Authors
Chapter 1
Introduction Parvaneh Tavakoli, Sheryl Cooke
Chapter 2
Comprehensibility at Phonological Level Parvaneh Tavakoli, Sheryl Cooke
Chapter 3
Comprehensibility at Discourse / Text Level Parvaneh Tavakoli, Sheryl Cooke
Chapter 4
Comprehensibility at a Pragmatic Level Parvaneh Tavakoli, Sheryl Cooke
Chapter 5
Comprehensibility and Fluency Parvaneh Tavakoli, Sheryl Cooke
Chapter 6
Technology and Comprehensibility Parvaneh Tavakoli
Chapter 7
Teaching towards a Comprehensibility Goal Parvaneh Tavakoli, Sheryl Cooke
Chapter 8
Conclusion Parvaneh Tavakoli, Sheryl Cooke
Appendices
Appendix 1: Cambridge B2 First Speaking Task Parvaneh Tavakoli, Sheryl Cooke
Appendix 2: TOEFL iBT Speaking Parvaneh Tavakoli, Sheryl Cooke
Appendix 3: IELTS Descriptors Parvaneh Tavakoli, Sheryl Cooke
Appendix 4: Fluency Indicators Parvaneh Tavakoli, Sheryl Cooke
Appendix 5: Examples of Tests Parvaneh Tavakoli, Sheryl Cooke