Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This pilot research investigates an interface area between second language acquisition (SLA) and language testing (LT) in the context of Chinese second language (L2) learners’ acquisition of classifiers. It conducted a test concerning the acquisition of Chinese classifiers, comprised of a composition task and a gap-filling task. Data was collected from three English native speakers via the designed sequential elicitation tasks, among which, dynamic assessment was adopted as the testing method. Findings illustrate that: 1) from a SLA stance, noticing outperforms accuracy within each individual’s task; 2) from a LT perspective, the gap-filling task elicits higher classifier usage compared to the composition task. This study uncovers the issues of learning classifiers, namely, difficulty in memorisation and individual differences that affect acquisition. On the other hand, it was observed that different elicitations influence testing results and interpretations, which called for the consideration of the sequencing of elicitations in the tasks. Equally significant, a discussion of the SLA-LT interface reveals a limitation in the current testing design, as age influences the validity of the test. Therefore, establishing test validity requires either varying age groups of participants or asking for a L1 composition from the test-takers based on the same elicitation.