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Research Article

Assessment of English Language Oral Production Using CALF:
an Automatic Analytic Tool for Complexity, Accuracy,
Lexis and Fluency

1 Infanta Vincy R Greta D’Souza
2
1 CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Email: infanta.r@res.christuniversity.in
2 CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Email:greta.dsouza@christuniversity.in

Abstract
This paper shows the evident lack of ICT based oral language production assessment
tools and how the English language assessment in the State school education system is
limited to testing the listening, reading and writing language skills. This paper projects
four important factors which are proven to be effective indicators of an individual’s oral
language proficiency. This research paper explores the use of ICT in language assessment
and explains the usage of CALF tool in depth which is an automatic analytic tool developed
by Gavin Bui and Peter Skehan (2016) to analyse the complexity, accuracy and fluency of
spoken language for research purposes. The study was conducted primarily to pilot the
CALF tool and test its functionality in the context of interest for a research project. The
CALF tool was piloted in a Government school in Tamil Nadu and the participants were
learners of English as a second language from VI standard. A total of 15 students were
present for all the sessions. The speech data of the learners were recorded, transcribed,
coded and uploaded in the CALF system for obtaining the indicative measures of
complexity, accuracy, lexical and fluency in English language production. The recorded
speech data was analysed twice and the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was
obtained using SPSS to establish the reliability of the CALF tool. The obtained ICC value
of 0.955 proved an excellent level of conformity in the Complexity, Accuracy, Lexical and
Fluency measures derived from the CALF system. The study most importantly exhibits
the potential of the CALF tool to be added as a significant online language production
assessment tool with further advancement research on the transcription and coding
stages.

Keywords: CALF tool, ICT in language assessment, English Language Oral Production

Introduction mobility, much greater investment
in research that informs policy and
The English language production practice is necessary but does not seem
skills are one of the least assessed to be forthcoming” (Ramanathan, 2016).
and focused skills in English language The Draft National Educational Policy
teaching spaces in the school education. (2019) clearly expresses the desire to
“In a society where English proficiency promote high accessibility and quality
guarantees economic and social upward in English language education in India

Indian Journal of Educational Technology 239
Volume 3, Issue 2, July 2021