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Language Power (LP) is a measure of one’s ability to communicate effectively in a given language, specifically one that is not native to the speaker. Current instructional programs throughout the world continue to attempt to teach enrollees how to communicate in a second language – yet they struggle. They struggle because existing methodologies do not typically result in the learner being able to communicate effectively in the new language. The root cause of this global problem is that learners do not reach a sufficient level of “native-ness” in their speech which hurts the learner’s career achievements - despite numerous attempts at language instruction policy and practice reform.〔Dennis, R. (1996). An examination of English as a Second Language assessment tools utilized by adult literacy providers in Pennsylvania. ''PAACE Journal of Lifelong Learning, 5,'' 1-13.〕 Language Power consists of two key components: 1) an ability to speak and be understood, and 2) an ability to listen and understand. Individuals with strong language power possess the ability to communicate effectively in a social environment. When non-native speakers engage in oral communication, native speakers of that language recognize sufficiently well-formed speech, in that it is satisfactorily ‘native’ or sufficiently close to what they know as ‘their language’ in order to be completely understood. When non-native speakers listen to a econdary language, they need to be capable of interpreting and processing words that are spoken at real world rates of speech in the manner spoken by native speakers of that language. ==Background== Each year in the United States, many students are required to learn a language other than English in their educational careers. Often, after years of study and quite likely earning passing grades on final and college entrance exams such as the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language) Oral Proficiency Interview, most students cannot speak at a level that will be understood or can they understand basic everyday exchanges at conversational speed in the language’s native country, as one would encounter when watching television or listening to the radio.〔Salaberry, R. (2000). Revising the revised format of the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview. ''Language Testing, 17(3),'' 289-310.〕 Language is taught to a level of certain academic competencies, further referred to as academic knowledge (AK): 1) grammatical competence to include proper use of grammar, extensive vocabulary knowledge, and appropriate pronunciation, 2) sociolinguistic competence, which is the proper use of words and grammar depending on social situations and knowledge of cultural politeness, 3) discourse competence – the ability to use the language in various settings, such as a debate or neighborhood gathering, and 4) strategic competence, the ability to use verbal and non-verbal means to communicate, especially during challenging situations.〔Celce-Murcia, M., Z. Dornyei, and S. Thurrell. (1995). Communicative compentence: A pedagogically motivated model with content specifications. ''. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 6(2),'' 5-35.〕〔Belcher, D. (2006). English for Specific Purposes: Teaching to Perceived Needs and Imagined Futures in Worlds of Work, Study, and Everyday Life. ''TESOL Quarterly, 40(1),'' 133-156.〕 Academic knowledge measures are far more prevalent and comprise the majority items we see in formal language assessment. Also known as ''drill and kill'', typical instructional programs continue to focus on rote memorization of vocabulary and grammatical structure instead of practical use of a language – a deficiency in ''humanization'' of course material.〔Kramsch, C. (2006). From communicative competence to symbolic competence. ''Modern Language, 90,'' 249-252.〕 Furthermore, there is a lack of appropriate materials in an academic setting, driving teachers to create home-made course materials for class.〔Tomlinson, B. (2012). Material development for language learning and teaching ''Language Teaching, 45(2),'' 143-179.〕 A study by Houston (2005) emonstrated that students learning Spanish valued “survival-skills” learning (ability to function in a social environment) more than ''academic'' knowledge of a language.〔Houston, T. (2005). Outcomes assessment for beginning and intermediate Spanish: One program's process and results. ''Foreign Language Annals, 38(3)''.〕 Moreover, teachers report lack of time and resources to practice a language within the classroom to strengthen competency.〔Latha, V. and P. Rajan. (2012). Non-native Student’s Communication is Affected Due to the Lack of Pragmatic Competence. '' English Language Teaching, 5(2)''.〕〔Roca-Varela, M. and I. Palacios. (2013). How are spoken skills assessed in proficiency tests of general English as a Foreign Language? A preliminary survey ''International Journal of English Studies, 13(2),'' 53-68.〕〔Roever, C. and T. McNamara. (2006). Language testing: the social dimension. ''International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 16(2),'' 242-258.〕 Vocabulary items are quite common and take many forms. From simple flash card type exercises to more complex matching games and standard multiple choice, over the years test makers have employed a variety of ways to test the student’s understanding of the meaning of a single word. This item type may be useful to increase the total number of words a student understands, however, it is not an indicator of communication competency unless the item combines either identification of real world audio or oral production that connects the speaker to the real world. Second only to vocabulary items in number are grammar items. These items are typically found in written form, on paper or on the computer screen, and typically present the student with a multiple choice selection to fill-in-the-blank or complete/replace language items in a sentence with the response that is grammatically correct. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Language Power」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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