How Do Japanese Learners of English Assess Their L2 Proficiency?

要旨

<jats:p>For researchers in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), it is not always simple to determine which proficiency measures to use in assessing participants’ language abilities. As the most adequate proficiency measure varies depending on the research scope, understanding the characteristics of each measure is necessary to promote the replicability and generalizability of research studies. This study investigated how Japanese learners of English assess their L2 proficiency from the perspective of the relationships between two distinct categories of language proficiency assessment: subjective and objective. The selfrated English proficiency data of 180 Japanese learners of English were analyzed in comparison with their vocabulary size. Additionally, this study examined how language exposure influences self-rated proficiency based on the hypothesis that feedback from others would improve the accuracy of self-language assessment. The results showed that subjective and objective measures were positively but weakly correlated. A positive effect of language exposure on self-assessment was observed; however, there was a lack of evidence that language exposure improves accuracy of self-assessment. These results indicate that accuracy of subjective measures can vary depending on individual differences.</jats:p>