Puhetta arvioinnista : yleisten kielitutkintojen arvioijien käsityksiä arvioinnista

This paper focuses on raters’ beliefs and views of assessment and the factors influencing their judgments and performance as raters in the National Certificates of Language Proficiency (NCLP) Finnish language test. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews (N=18) and content analysis was used to classify the responses. Findings suggest that raters’ experience and training have positive effects on rater performance and the use of assessment criteria. Experienced raters seem to be more familiar with different language proficiency levels and their view of language is more holistic today than during the first years of their rating experience. There are some external factors and linguistic features that affect raters’ performance, such as pronunciation, handwriting and the test-taker’s personality. In these cases, self-reflection helps raters to strive for objectivity in their evaluations.