Assessing Proficiency: A Moral Responsibility
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The role nature of language proficiency has played in educational practices and policies is undeniable. A characteristic of many educational programs has been the establishment of entry or exit criteria based on approved [standards of proficiency][1]. This has been a controversial aspect that has led to inquire about the definition of proficiency, the capacity to decide who is proficient and the criteria to determine how much of this proficiency is enough.
[edit] CLARIFYING CONCEPTS
Being an English teacher has led me to dive into this term more in deep. I believe that understanding what proficiency is, how it can be understood in the school context and how it can be assessed, will assure the success when teaching a second language, but what is more important, it would make our learners feel proud and successful with what they do. The debates around the issue of proficiency have struggled to define many concepts that seem to be closely related to proficiency: language ability, language skills, language performance and language competence. The lack of clarity when addressing these terms has made the concept of proficiency a slippery term to be defined since it has been used as a synonym of some of the already mentioned aspects. However, there are some authors that offer guidelines to clarify the use of this term. For instance, Baker in her book, Foundations of Bilingual education and bilingualism (1996), expresses the proficiency definition as follows:
Language proficiency is sometimes used synonymously with language competence; other times as a specific, measurable outcome from language testing. However, both language proficiency and language ability are distinct from language achievement. Language proficiency and language ability are viewed as the product of a variety of mechanisms “ (Baker, 1996, p. )
On the other hand, Jim Cummins a theorist who has analyzed this concept in deep states in his book Language , power and pedagogy ( 2000,the definition OF proficiency as follows
Language proficiency can not be conceptualized outside of particular contexts of use and we can talk of different levels of accomplishment or expertise ( or degrees of access) only with reference to specific contexts” (Cummins, 2000,p.5)
These definitions make the explicit or implicit interaction of various elements of the communicative competence clear: performance, competence, skills, abilities, among others. I would say, however, that the levels or degrees that Cummins mentions in his definition, connect, up to certain extent, the already mentioned terms. I consider competence is the individual mental representation of a concept or structure, in this case language, the performance is the tangible evidence of proficiency and the ability is the disposition to face learning.
If we centre our attention on proficiency, studies have shown two proficiency- related concepts that have evolved throughout the years, but have maintained their essence. Besides, from my point of view they are the key to understand what and how proficiency must be targeted in the school context:
Academic Proficiency
Conversational Proficiency
An overview of these two concepts can tells us that early studies such as Vigotsky’s talked about spontaneous and scientific concepts, in which the first ones evolve through social interaction and the second ones are derived from an organized mental scheme. Bruner mentioned the communicative and analytic competences, considering the first ones as the ones produced and comprehended within a context while the second ones are products of thought processes operating on linguistic representations exclusively. Donaldson and Olson also made a distinction between embedded and disembedded modes of thought and language.
All these studies reveal the underlying relation between thought and language and how the context where language is acquired, is of high relevance. This distinction between academic and conversational language proficiency is accurately developed by Jim Cummins (1979) under the acronyms BICS ( basic interpersonal communicative skills) and CALP (cognitive academic language proficiency)Cummins [http//:www.iteachlearn.com/cummins/biscalp.html]]. This distinction was firstly addressed to draw attention to the very different time periods required by immigrant children to acquire conversational fluency in their second language as compared to grade-appropriate academic proficiency in that language.
The importance of Cummin’s analysis lies on the fact that the students’ proficiency has to be seen as a source of success and not of failure. BICS and CALP do not structure a theory themselves, but are important aspects to point out when assessing someone’s proficiency. The distinction between these two concepts, according to Cummins [http//:www.iteachlearn.com/cummins/biscalp.html], is placed within two intersecting continua where the cognitive demands and contextual support interact. This process of interaction involves a variety of tasks or activities ranging from cognitively undemanding to cognitively demanding ones and from context embedded to context reduced situations. It is important to understand that context-reduced activities would eventually require more language knowledge than the ones immersed in a highly context support. This perspective is even clearer with what Cummins states in his book Language, power and pedagogy, (2000):
==PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS==
The premises stated by Cummins make us ,teachers, reflect upon the nature of proficiency within the school context. There are some pedagogical implications that are derived from the previous analysis:
Proficiency should be considered within a continuum, a progressive process that should start since the first years of schooling with adequate contextual support triggering the first evidence of the student’s proficiency.
The selection of the correct kinds of activities teachers might develop to assure, not only a proper demand and response from the student but also a reliable source to determine someone’s proficiency.
[edit] It is important to understand the context when teachers are immersed into. In this sense, the framework proposed by Cummins is likely to be applied in an academic context. since the context where teachers are immersed into is a merely academic one, although some attempts to interact with the target culture are made.
[edit] The contextual support we can offer is hypothetical and does not imply genuineness.So tecahers need to give relevance to the types of contexts provided to the student. They need to be meaningful and motivating.
[edit] GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
Now the question is how can teachers implement this academic-conversational perspective? My purpose is not to provide with a complete and well structured implementation plan, but to call the attention to some aspects that I consider relevant when assessing proficiency. I do believe that teachers can not take the risk to decide whether the student is proficient depending on the in-fashion educational trend. Clear examples in history have shown us that approaches such as grammar translation, the direct one, the audio-lingual , the functional-notional, among others, have come hand in hand with the approach to evaluate students. Under this perspective I can say that language proficiency has been reduced and limited, therefore the measurement of someone’s proficiency is misleading. Despite the fact that language nature could be conceived from various perspectives, it is important, though, to determine the criteria under which each student has to be evaluated as how evaluation may take place. These criteria shall be framed within the school policies and should be shared by all teachers. The issues to be mentioned are shaped within the theoretical framework proposed by Cummins and the reality I face as an English teacher. On the one hand, teachers should be careful when deciding what tasks or activities to develop because the cognitive demanding ones require more proficiency from the learner and they are not usually strongly supported by the context. As teachers, we are the ones to decide whether the context support is necessary and how much of it, we are providing the students with. The correct task choice would provide us with the adequate clues to make a decision on the student’s proficiency. There might be also a sequenced process, stated by the school policies, letting the students go through the development of conversational skills and academic ones. In this way, the perspective of the competence in the language is not fragmented but gradual. The scope and sequence will permit to show the variety of shades the student has concerning his/her proficiency. Finally, the fact that literacy takes time to be developed within these continua is a reality. Reading and writing are processes that should be carefully included when planning curricula, deciding not only what to develop but when to do it. As it has been analyzed, proficiency is not a simple term and not easy to be measured. Many aspects need to be considered when determining proficiency. Do we understand what it means? Do we conceive it within the school context? Do we consider all aspects surrounding this term when assessing?. Now I am sure that when you are facing a situation of deciding if one of your students is proficient or not, you will stop and think it twice.
