Taaltoetsing en die assessering van taalvermoë
AUTHORS | OUTEURS
Tobie van Dyk
0000-0002-0303-5669
Albert Weideman
0000-0002-9444-634X
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2022
ABSTRACT
Applied linguistics is a discipline of design. As applied linguists, we first conceive, design, and then implement applied linguistic interventions that can provide solutions to specific language problems. In this chapter, the focus is on one such artifact designed to intervene in a language problem, namely a language test, and how it can be used productively in assessing language proficiency so that other or further interventions (such as a language course for academic purposes or a language plan for a specific environment) can then be conceived, designed, and implemented. Robert Lado, a pioneer in language testing, contributed to the idea that language testing is no longer considered as just part of the normal work of any language teacher, but may today be regarded as a research area in its own right. Overall, it is not separate from matters such as a language course or language policy. The interventions discussed here – language courses, language plans, and language tests – are interventions in the subfields of language development, language policy, and language proficiency measurement, respectively, all sub-disciplines in applied linguistics. Language testing provides information about language proficiency, as well as diagnostic information that potentially facilitates language development. Language tests can also be used to determine the effectiveness of a language policy or development program. South Africa has much to learn in this regard, especially at the school level.
OPSOMMING
Die toegepaste linguistiek is ’n dissipline van ontwerp. As toegepaste taalkundiges bedink ons eers, en ontwerp en implementeer dan toegepaste linguistiese ingrypings wat oplossings vir bepaalde talige probleme kan bied. In hierdie hoofstuk is die fokus op een so ’n artefak wat ontwerp is om in te gryp op ʼn taalprobleem, naamlik ’n taaltoets, en hoe dit produktief aangewend kan word in die assessering van taalvermoë sodat daar weer ander, of verdere, ingrepe (soos byvoorbeeld ’n taalkursus vir akademiese doeleindes of ’n taalplan vir ’n spesifieke omgewing) bedink, ontwerp en implementeer kan word. Robert Lado, ʼn pionier van taaltoetsing, het daartoe bygedra dat taaltoetsing nie meer net as deel van die normale werk van enige taalonderwyser geag is nie, maar voldoende fokus gekry het om vandag geag te word as ’n ondersoeksgebied in eie reg. Oorhoofs gesien, staan dit egter nie los van sake soos ’n taalkursus of ’n taalbeleid nie. Die intervensies wat hier ter sprake is – taalkursusse, taalplanne en taaltoetse – is ingrypings op, onderskeidelik, die subgebiede van taalontwikkeling, taalbeleid en die meting van taalvermoë – alles subdissiplines in die toegepaste linguistiek. Taaltoetsing verskaf eerstens inligting oor taalvermoë, maar ook diagnostiese informasie wat taalontwikkeling potensieel vergemaklik. Taaltoetse kan verder gebruik word om die effektiwiteit van ’n taalbeleid of ontwikkelingsprogram te bepaal. Suid-Afrika het op alle vlakke, maar veral op skoolvlak, veel te leer in hierdie verband.
CITATION
Van Dyk, T.J. & Weideman, A. (2022). Taaltoetsing en die assessering van taalvermoë. In Carstens, WAM & Van Dyk, T.J. (reds.) Toegepaste taalkunde in Afrikaans (pp. 125-140). Pretoria: Van Schaik.
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ISBN: 9780627039706 