Measurement of English Speaking Proficiency Among Nonnative Americans

Native American judges (N = 56 men and women) listened to taped recordings of 28 Filipinos pronouncing 200 monosyllabic words which were phonetically balanced. The score was the total number of words identified correctly by the judges. Interrater reliability was moderately high (.72). Scores on a verbal intelligence test, education level, years of Naval service, age, hours per week that English is currently spoken, scores on the I-E Control Scale, age at which English was first spoken, and military rank were correlated with total word score. Only the latter two variables were associated significantly with the criterion. The significant finding for age at which English was first spoken replicates and extends previous results, while the significant correlation with military rank indicates that English speaking proficiency may be involved slightly in occupational advancement. This measure of English speaking proficiency appears to be reliable and valid, and may be useful in research on the development of English speaking skills, for evaluating the effectiveness of programs that train for English speech, and for identifying those who may most require such training.