The ACTFL proficiency guidelines are instrumental in shaping foreign language teaching and testing at all grade levels in the United States. However, their limitations, such as the absence of theoretical underpinnings, empirical verification, and language-specific descriptors, greatly constrain their application in teaching and testing Chinese as a second language (CSL) reading in US higher education contexts. Teachers need guidance regarding what component reading skills and knowledge should be taught and measured, as well as their relative difficulties. This study develops a CSL reading proficiency scale as a complement to the ACTFL proficiency guidelines through a measurement-driven approach. The scale development began with modeling the construct of CSL reading ability, as conceptualized in theoretical works. Drawing on this process, an operational descriptive scheme and a descriptor pool were established and subjected to expert review. Descriptors of CSL reading ability that survived the expert review were compiled into a Likert-scale questionnaire. Difficulties of descriptors were operationalized through teachers’ ratings ( N = 179) of whether CSL learners ‘can do’ what these descriptors denoted. The Rasch Rating Scale Model was then utilized to examine the measurement quality of the questionnaire, to calibrate teachers’ ratings, and to group the descriptors to associate them with the ACTFL proficiency levels. Finally, a four-level progression scale with 56 descriptors specifying characteristics of each level on the ACTFL reading proficiency continuum was established. Besides its application in teaching, the CSL reading proficiency scale will benefit testing and textbook writing.

中文翻译：

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为美国大学水平 CSL 课程制定阅读能力量表：对 ACTFL 指南的补充


ACTFL 能力指南有助于制定美国所有年级的外语教学和测试。然而，它们的局限性，例如缺乏理论基础、实证验证和特定语言描述符等，极大地限制了它们在美国高等教育背景下的汉语作为第二语言（CSL）阅读教学和测试中的应用。教师需要指导关于应该教授和测量哪些部分的阅读技能和知识，以及它们的相对困难。本研究通过测量驱动的方法开发了 CSL 阅读能力量表，作为 ACTFL 能力指南的补充。量表的开发始于对 CSL 阅读能力的构建进行建模，正如理论著作中所概念化的那样。借鉴这一过程，建立了可操作的描述方案和描述符池，并接受了专家审查。经过专家评审的 CSL 阅读能力描述被编制成李克特量表调查问卷。描述符的难度通过教师对 CSL 学习者是否“能做”这些描述符所表示的内容的评分（N = 179）来操作。然后使用 Rasch 评分量表模型来检查问卷的测量质量，校准教师的评分，并对描述符进行分组以将其与 ACTFL 熟练程度相关联。最后，建立了一个包含 56 个描述符的四级进展量表，详细说明了 ACTFL 阅读能力连续体中每个级别的特征。除了在教学中的应用外，CSL阅读能力量表还将有利于测试和教材编写。