Resumen de Designing rating scales for small-group interaction
Classroom activities in small groups provide opportunities for practising important interaction skills such as distributing and competing for opportunities to speak, holding the floor, adjusting to the contributions of other speakers, and negotiating real understanding when exchanging information, opinions, feelings, and attitudes. A rating scale is proposed here as a practical means of addressing the difficult task of assessing both the level of a particular communicative performance in a small group and the general ability to perform in small-group conversations over time. This paper will argue that theoretical difficulties of designing and using rating scales for this purpose, while requiring serious consideration, are outweighed by practical advantages. Rating scales not only report test performances. They can also guide the teaching process, defining the principles for the construction of both assessment and classroom tasks and providing teachers (and students) with achievable goals which they themselves have formulated in writing.
