How "Communicative" are Language Proficiency Tests?

Authors

Lyle F. Bachman

Publication Date

1985-01-01

Abstract

It is quite easy these days, in reading the research in language testing, to get the impression that tests of "communicative competence" are the vanguard of the future and that tests of "language proficiency" are somehow old-fashioned and of questionable validity. But this is a misconception that is largely due, I believe, to the failure to recognize that the notion of communicative competence is not something different from language proficiency, but comprises a redefinition, an expansion, if you will, of prior notions of language proficiency to include other areas of language use than the purely linguistic domains of phonology, morphology and syntax. This expanded definition of language proficiency includes both the discourse of which individual sentences are a part and the sociolinguistic situation which governs, to a large extent, the nature of that discourse, in both form and function. In attempting to characterize a given test as "communicative'', then, one question that must be addressed is "What aspects of communicative competence does the test measure?"

DOI

10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.15.2.1

First Page

1

Last Page

14

Recommended Citation

Bachman, Lyle F. (1985) "How "Communicative" are Language Proficiency Tests?," PASAA: Vol. 15: Iss. 2, Article 1.
DOI: 10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.15.2.1
Available at: https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/pasaa/vol15/iss2/1