ASTP to ACTFL: the Development of Rating Scales for Oral Language Testing in the USA

The modern approach to oral language testing is the outgrowth of quite a long research and cooperative development of measurement instruments intended to evaluate how well a person speaks a language. Among these instruments the most important are rating (assessment) scales. Most studies seem to agree that the Foreign Services Institute rating scale devised in 1950-s in the USA originates rating scale methodology in oral language testing. The question then arises: is there evidence of the applications of performance rating scales prior to them? And how have they evolved over time? The present study based on data obtained from an archival database and secondary sources attempts to fill this gap and get an in-depth historical understanding of the subject. World War II and posterior wars and international conflicts, in which the United States participated, demanded to shift the language teaching curricula toward more aural and oral methods and to focus on speaking ability training which resulted in a shift in testing practices. The routine of testing speaking skills based on intuitive judgement of the experienced examiner did not score the tests accurately and so didn't meet the demands of the time. The problem was solved by introducing a new generation of measuring instruments - direct tests where the test taker's performance was judged against a fixed set of criteria described in rating scales on several ascending levels or bands. This work's originality is rooted in providing evidence of several applications of rating scales earlier in 1940-s by W. Kaulfers, F. Agard and H. Dunkel. A brief chronological account helped to trace back their evolution and detect the current state. It also helped "looking back to look forward" and get some perspectives for their future. We suggest that further development of oral language assessment techniques would be associated not only with the construction of computer and Internet versions of tests, but also their computer-aided assessment. Today, the solution of such global tasks is impossible without a broad interdisciplinary approach and joint efforts of highly qualified specialists from different countries. Knowledge and professional comprehension of events in the history of applied linguistics and language testing, as well as reliance on previous experience, can determine their success.

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