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Who, What, Where, WENS? The Native Speaker in the ILR

Who, What, Where, WENS? The Native Speaker in the ILR. ECOLT 2010 October 2010 ILR Testing Committee. Native Speaker in the Literature. Sociolinguists, theoretical, computational and applied linguists all discuss the native speaker Davies’ (2001) native speaker Native speaker usage

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Who, What, Where, WENS? The Native Speaker in the ILR

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  1. Who, What, Where, WENS? The Native Speaker in the ILR ECOLT 2010 October 2010 ILR Testing Committee

  2. Native Speaker in the Literature • Sociolinguists, theoretical, computational and applied linguists all discuss the native speaker • Davies’ (2001) native speaker • Native speaker usage • Method of acquisition • Ultimate goal of acquisition • Meanings are used interchangeably

  3. “Native Speaker” in the ILR Skill Level Descriptions: the “FE HA WENS” • Functionally Equivalent • Highly Articulate • Well-educated Native Speaker • ILR FE HA WENS is a special breed of NS • Exists, though rarely • Is defined in greater detail in training materials and practical examples

  4. History of the ILR Scale • Functional origin dating from FSI needs in the 1950’s • ILR Skill Level Descriptions published by OPM in1985 and used across the government: Speaking, Reading, Listening and Writing • Added Translation and Interpretation • Working on Audio Translation and Cultural Guidelines

  5. Definitions • Native Speaker • Heritage Speaker (not our focus today) • Language Learner and Non-Native Speaker

  6. Context for Our Tests • Functional Scale • Language professionals who USE their language • OPI summits determined need for keeping the reference point at Level 5 • Need for a FE HA WENS at the top of the ILR Scale

  7. ILR Skill Level Descriptions’ Conundrum • intended to test second language speakers • functionally equivalent to well-educated native speaker’s standards = yardstick for assessing proficiency scores

  8. Who We Test Federal government personnel who represent the U.S. regardless of when, where or how they learned the language of the test

  9. Who We Test • No assumptions are made about how the language of the test has been acquired • Examinees are treated like well educated native speakers, then the language of the test is scaled to their level

  10. Native vs. Non-Native Speaker Irrelevant !

  11. Typical Proficiency Ranges by Acquisition Method HS/College Learners Heritage Speakers Articulate Native Speakers 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 Language Majors Native Speakers FE HA WENS

  12. Differences Between Level 2 and Level 3

  13. Differences Between Level 2 and Level 3

  14. Differences Between Level 2 and Level 3

  15. Differences Between Level 2 and Level 3

  16. Differences Between Level 2 and Level 3

  17. Differences Between Level 2 and Level 3

  18. Differences Between Level 2 and Level 3

  19. Disclaimer! Government testers do NOT make an overall rating based on one sample! The samples we are going to play for you today are being used to illustrate our discussion, not to provide firm evidence of an individual’s overall language proficiency

  20. Samples of NS and NNS performing Level 3 tasks • Non-native speaker (“Ben”) successfully performing a supported opinion task at L3. • Non-native speaker (“Mary Ann”) unsuccessfully performing a supported opinion task at L3. • Native speaker (“Lucas”) unsuccessfully performing a supported opinion task at L3. • Native speaker (“Michael”) successfully performing a supported opinion task at L3.

  21. Conclusion • What someone can DO with the language at any given level is important • Not HOW they acquired their language proficiency

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