Intensive English programs (IEPs) strive to make certain that international students have sufficient levels of speaking ability, which is typically assessed through a combination of different tasks. One drawback of including multiple tasks is that the development, administration, and scoring might not be practical. Therefore, it is important to investigate how well the tasks account for examinees’ speaking ability, as using fewer tasks could help in minimizing resources. Using quantitative methods of analysis, this study evaluates how well four types of speaking tasks on proficiency and achievement tests account for students’ speaking ability in an IEP. The findings indicate that several tasks uniquely contribute to the speaking construct. This study has implications for the importance of balancing practicality with construct representativeness and presents a model of how IEPs might approach this issue.

中文翻译：

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平衡IEP口语考试的实用性和建构代表性

强化英语课程（IEP）努力确保国际学生具有足够的口语水平，这通常是通过结合不同的任务来评估的。包含多个任务的缺点之一是开发，管理和评分可能不切实际。因此，重要的是要调查任务如何很好地说明应试者的口语能力，因为使用较少的任务可能有助于最大程度地减少资源。本研究使用定量分析方法，评估了在能力和成绩测试中四种类型的口语任务如何在IEP中解释学生的口语能力。研究结果表明，几个任务对口语结构具有独特的作用。