Scaling descriptors for oral proficiency assessment in the Royal Saudi Airforce

Abstract

The last decade of the past millennium witnessed an increase in the use of scaling descriptors for assessing the speaking skill of foreign language learners. These descriptors aim at giving a picture on what the foreign language learners are able to do in the real life situation, through assessing their ability to speak in the<br>intended language. The aim of this research is two folds: First, a critical review of the literature is provided.<br>Second, scaling descriptors are constructed to be used in the evaluation of cadets' spoken English in the Royal<br>Saudi Air Force. The last part of this research addresses inter-rater reliability among six raters who used the<br>descriptors to evaluate the performance of a number of cadets.