Assessing productive skills at universities : a comparative analysis between CLES and CERTACLES
Résumé
This paper introduces a research effort undertaken to further cooperation and recognition amongst two Higher Education certification systems within the NULTE network, CLES in France and CertAcles in Spain. Our research focuses on productive skills as this is the main goal of university certification systems. Our first step was to undertake the comparative analysis of C1 writing assessment in both certification systems, from the point of view of specifications, rating scales and linking to the CEFR. Our goal is to find a common path towards the certification of language competence in a university context, based on the descriptors of the CEFR -and thus comparable and internationally transferable-, but sustained on different context-based assessment models. Models of communicative competence (Hymes, 1972; Canale & Swain, 1980; Bachman, 1990; Celce-Murcia, Dornyei & Thunrrel, 1995; Bachman & Palmer, 1996) have tilted the balance towards the validity of assessment and thus towards using direct testing methods while implementing mechanisms that ensured reliability of results (design of specifications and scales, rater training, double marking, etc.). The most critical aspect of validity in a writing test is that of construct validity, that is, whether the test designed is successful in measuring the element required for successful writing in English (Kroll, 1998). In the case of university certification systems, the element required is the ability to go beyond the knowledge-telling model characteristic of immature writers towards the knowledge-transforming model of a mature writer (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 2003).