A CLOZE TEST TO DETERMINE THE LANGUAGE LEVEL OF PORTUGUESE L2 LEARNERS OF GERMAN

Authors

  • Cristina Flores Escola de Letras, Artes e Ciências Humanas, Universidade do Minho
  • Clara Setas Escola de Letras, Artes e Ciências Humanas, Universidade do Minho
  • Inês Sousa Escola de Letras, Artes e Ciências Humanas, Universidade do Minho
  • João Antunes

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34630/polissema.vi21.3815

Keywords:

German as second language, L2 acquisition, Cloze Test, language proficiency assessment, self-assessment, input factors

Abstract

This study aims to test the feasibility of a research tool, a Cloze Test, developed to assess the proficiency of German as a second language (L2) in native speakers of European Portuguese (EP). The Cloze Test is a fill-in-the-gap test used as a tool to measure the participants’ proficiency of linguistic competence, taking into account their lexical, morphosyntactic and discursive knowledge of varying complexity levels. The research conducted presents a Cloze Test in German that was tested on a group of 37 adult native Portuguese speakers who have acquired German as L2 (mainly in a classroom environment). The results of this study indicate that this type of instrument allows to assess language proficiency as it presents a clear complexity hierarchy, with the potential to identify the different proficiency levels of the participants. Moreover, statistical correlations between test scores, self-assessments and extralinguistic input factors show that test scores correlate with both self-assessment and the type of L2 contact. The results are further discussed concerning the role of various input variables. The article ends with a discussion of some limitations of this study, while also highlighting future research to be conducted in this field.

Author Biography

Cristina Flores, Escola de Letras, Artes e Ciências Humanas, Universidade do Minho

 

Cristina  Flores é Professora Associada do Departamento de Estudos Germanísticos e Eslavos do Instituto de Letras e Ciências Humanas. Licenciada em Ensino de Português e Alemão, pela UMinho (em 1999), Mestre em Estudos Luso-Alemães, pela UMinho (em 2004), doutorou-se em Ciências da Linguagem, Ramo Linguística Alemã, pela UMinho, com a dissertação 'A competência sintáctica de falantes bilingues luso-alemães regressados a Portugal. Um Estudo sobre Erosão Linguística', em parceria com a Universidade de Hamburgo/Alemanha.

É Diretora do Centro de Estudos Humanísticos da UMinho (CEHUM) desde junho 2019, e investigadora integrada nos Grupos de Investigação LTE (Linguística Teórica e Experimental) e EHum2M (Estudos Humanísticos de Migrações e Marginalidades) e colaboradora do Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa. Foi Diretora do Departamento de Estudos Germanísticos e Eslavos de 2013 a 2019. Desde dez. 2018 é também Diretora do Mestrado de Grau Duplo em Estudos Luso-Alemães. É ainda membro da Comissão Diretiva do Doutoramento em Ciências da Linguagem desde fevereiro de 2017.

Desde 2008 tem coordenado e participado em vários projetos de investigação, centrados no estudo da competência linguística de falantes monolingues e bilingues. Tem publicado em revistas internacionais como Journal of Child Language, International Journal of Bilingualism, Linguistic Approaches do Bilingualism, Bilingualism. Language and Cognition, GLOSSA, Língua, Probus, Languages entre outros.

É editora associada das revistas Linguistic Approaches do Bilingualism (John Benjamins) e Heritage Language Journal, co-editora da série Language Development (Narr Verlag) e da revista REAL (Revista de Estudos Germanísticos). É membro da Comissão de Ética para a Investigação em Ciências Sociais e Humanas (CEICSH) da UMinho desde março 2019.

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capa do nº 21 da Revista Polissema

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Published

2021-12-31

How to Cite

Flores, C., Setas, C., Sousa, I., & Antunes, J. (2021). A CLOZE TEST TO DETERMINE THE LANGUAGE LEVEL OF PORTUGUESE L2 LEARNERS OF GERMAN. POLISSEMA – ISCAP Journal of Letters, 1(21), 31–53. https://doi.org/10.34630/polissema.vi21.3815

Issue

No. 21 (2021)

Section

Research Articles

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