Investigating the spoken production of young learners aged 13-15

Abstract

More children are learning English as a foreign language whether at school or in extracurricular lessons. This has increased the demand for tests aimed at younger learners to assess their English language ability (Lee & Winke, 2018). Some of these tests (e.g., TOEFL Junior (ETS) and the ‘for Schools’ variants of the Cambridge Main Suite of tests) have made changes to the context of test tasks to make them suitable for the age group. However, there is a gap in understanding whether these changes are sufficient, given that little is known about the features of young learner spoken performance on such tasks. This mixed-methods study aims to bridge that gap by investigating the features of spoken production of teenagers (13-15) in comparison to adults (25+) on two B2 level test tasks, one aimed at adults (Task 4) and the other at teens (Task 5). Analytic and overall scores were assigned by raters to 460 candidate performances across the four groups. Multiple regression analysis revealed differences between groups on features which contributed most to the overall score. Notably pronunciation, cohesion, and task fulfilment (T5 only) for teens and grammar and lexis for adults. Complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) measures were examined on all performances. Differences were confirmed using Two-Way Mixed ANOVA and post-hoc multiple comparisons. This showed that means for most measures increased in T5 for both groups. Idea Units analysis revealed an over-reliance on the content provided in T5 by teens. Whilst all groups elaborated on the points, teens were less sophisticated and integrated these points less frequently. This is a difference which should be taken into account when considering the amount of input for such tasks for this age group. Finally, stimulated recall interviews confirmed some of the trends noticed around teen performances, such as repetition and lack of elaboration. It also highlighted some differences in application of the scales by the raters with regards to task fulfilment and lexis. The research findings offer suggestions of the characteristics of teen spoken production in comparison to adults and how those differences may be considered when designing test tasks and rating scales for this age group. This study also makes practical suggestions for further refinement of the task for teenagers and incorporation of the findings into rater training and future scale revisions.