ABSTRACT
This study examines whether foreign language students perceive the difficulty of performing various speaking tasks in a manner consistent with the hierarchical characterizations of these tasks in the Speaking Proficiency Guidelines of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Data was gathered using a new task-based self-assessment of foreign language speaking proficiency. Responses from 445 German, French, and Spanish high school and college students were analyzed using the many-facet Rasch model. With the exception of 1 task, the 18 tasks on the instrument were scaled by all students in a manner consistent with the Guidelines. The results provide some external support for the validity of oral proficiency tests based on an assumption that more foreign language proficiency is required to carry out certain speaking tasks than others, as posited by the Guidelines.
