Designing and Validating a CEFR-Aligned Speaking Rubric for Rural Primary ESL Learners

This study reports the development and validation of a CEFR-aligned analytic speaking rubric designed for upper primary ESL learners in rural Malaysia. Adopting a quantitative instrument development and validation design, the study focused on establishing the rubric’s content validity and scoring reliability. Six TESL experts evaluated the relevance and clarity of the rubric descriptors, while a pilot study involving 30 upper primary pupils from two rural schools provided empirical scoring data. Content validity was examined using the Item-Level Content Validity Index (I-CVI) and Scale-Level Content Validity Index (S-CVI). The findings indicated that all rubric domains achieved acceptable I-CVI values (≥ 0.83), with an overall S-CVI of 0.93, demonstrating strong expert agreement. Scoring reliability was assessed through inter-rater reliability using Cohen’s Kappa (κ = 0.61–0.76), indicating moderate to substantial agreement, and internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.84), reflecting good internal reliability. These results provide initial evidence that the rubric is conceptually sound and can be applied with reasonable scoring consistency. The study contributes a context-responsive, CEFR-aligned speaking assessment rubric that supports more systematic and transparent evaluation of speaking proficiency among rural primary ESL learners.