Examinees’ Four Skills Performance Balance in High Stake Foreign Language Examinations

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the balance of the examinees’ performances in different skills tests as part of a foreign language examination. In many cases, the examinees’ performances in the four skills present significant deviations. This deviation raises the question of whether it is an indication of an error in the construction or rating of the test or whether it is an expected result. In order to explore this question, a study was conducted using real data collected from 8715 candidates who participated in Italian language exams, administered by the Greek State Certificate Language Proficiency System (KPG), between 2011 and 2015 (ten sessions). The data were analysed with Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and indicated that there is no balance between the performances of the examinees in the different skills tests.

Keywords

• Foreign language testing. Four skills performance balance. Language certification. Skills integration. Skills segregation