English Language Proficiency Test Research Articles

Out of many, one: challenges in teaching multilingual Kenyan primary students in English

ABSTRACTUsing a large-scale, standardised English language proficiency test (TOEFL® PrimaryTM), this study examined Kenyan primary school students’ English reading and listening proficiency and explored challenges primary school teachers face in using English as the medium of instruction (EMI) to teach their multilingual students. The test was taken by 4768 students in Standards 3–7 from 51 primary schools across the country in Kenya. Seventeen primary school teachers, representing six major geographical regions, participated in semi-structured interviews to explore their teaching challenges. Results show that, regardless of standard/grade level, the majority of the participating students were beginner-level English language users, which suggests that they may not have the language skills needed to understand classroom instruction and learn the subject matter content effectively in English. Interview findings indicate that, as they implement the EMI policy, teachers encounter five major challenges: (1) mother tongue interference, (2) students’ attitudes toward English, (3) lack of usefulness of English language in the community, (4) resource constraints and (5) diverse student backgrounds. The results have pedagogical implications for EMI implementation in similar multilingual contexts.

Predictors of first year retention rates at the university of the West Indies, Jamaica

This study examines first year retention rates of First degree entrants in the academic year 2014-15. Level of academic preparation was operationalized as pass/failure on the English Language Proficiency Test (ELPT) and matriculation status (normal/lower entry). Variables that were strong predictors of retention were scholarship status and matriculation status. Residential status proved to be statistically significant, while sex, total courses passed in high school, and English Language Proficiency status were statistically non-significant. Future studies need to examine retention of non-traditional students and predictor variables reflective of attribution theory and locus of control.

The morphing assessment terrain for English learners in US schools

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the public policy reshaping the assessment terrain for English learners (ELs) across the USA and to consider the implications and impact of these practices on sustaining and supporting a diverse student population in today’s schools.Design/methodology/approachThe authors review the literature and publicly available policy documents to trace key policy trends over the past 15 years that have shaped the current educational landscape and assessment practices for ELs in the USA.FindingsIn the USA, the 2015 Common Core State Standards (CCSSs) assessments generated worrisome results for ELs, as significant numbers had failing scores in English language arts and math. These results are juxtaposed to public policies that impact the educational experience of ELs, including No Child Left Behind and the CCSS, and which, despite their stated intentions to ameliorate the achievement gap, are found to be assimilationist in nature. Indeed, a review of the initiatives of developing common EL standards and English language proficiency tests and the recommendations for EL accommodations in state tests suggests several areas of concern. The recently passed Every Student Succeeds Act focuses on this vulnerable population, but there are concerns that the continued focus on accountability and testing will do little to facilitate academic progress for these students.Practical implicationsThe paper recommends a need to reevaluate the support and testing process for ELs to stem widespread failure and ascertain the sustenance of democratic and diversified schools.Originality/valueThe study provides an overview of key policy trends, outlines and critiques recent changes in the assessment of ELs and draws implications for practice.

The BEST Dataset of Language Proficiency.

The BEST dataset presents data from 650 adult participants from the Basque Country who completed a series of Basque, English, and Spanish language proficiency tests (hence the name BEST). The BEST dataset is the result of a collaborative project developed at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL) with the aim of providing researchers from the Basque Country with a series of norms that can be used to characterize the test samples. The files contain background information about the participants (age, gender, maximum education level, and handedness). It furthermore contains the values per language for age of acquisition, self-rated exposure, self-rated proficiency, the scores resulting from an interview, the number of correctly named items in a picture-naming test, and the LexTALE scores.

A comparison of reliability and precision of subscore reporting methods for a state English language proficiency assessment

K–12 English language proficiency tests that assess multiple content domains (e.g., listening, speaking, reading, writing) often have subsections based on these content domains; scores assigned to these subsections are commonly known as subscores. Testing programs face increasing customer demands for the reporting of subscores in addition to the total test scores in today’s accountability-oriented educational environment. Although reporting subscores can provide much-needed information for teachers, administrators, and students about proficiency in the test domains, one of the major drawbacks of subscore reporting includes their lower reliability as compared to the test as a whole. In addition, viewing language domains as if they were not interrelated, and reporting subscores without considering this relationship between domains, may be contradictory to the theory of language acquisition.This study explored several methods of assigning subscores to the four domains of a state English language proficiency test, including classical test theory (CTT)-based number correct, unidimensional item response theory (UIRT), augmented item response theory (A-IRT), and multidimensional item response theory (MIRT), and compared the reliability and precision of these different methods across language domains and grade bands. The first two methods assessed proficiency in the domains separately, without considering the relationship between domains; the last two methods took into consideration relationships between domains. The reliability and precision of the CTT and UIRT methods were similar and lower than those of A-IRT and MIRT for most domains and grade bands; MIRT was found to be the most reliable method. Policy implications and limitations of this study, as well as directions for further research, are discussed.

English language proficiency level of Higher Secondary level students in Nepal

The objective of this study is to investigate the proficiency level of English language of higher secondary level students in Nepal regarding their gender, nature of institution, medium of instruction and stream. The subject of this study comprises 529 learners from 22 higher secondary school of academic year 2015/6 among whom an English language proficiency test was conducted. The data obtained were analyzed using mean, Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal Wallis H-test of non-parametric test. The result showed that the English language proficiency level of higher secondary level students in Nepal was poor (M = 10.4490). Regarding the gender, the result showed that there was no statistically significant difference between female and male ELT students in their English language proficiency level. However, ELT students of government higher secondary level were found statistically significantly less proficient in English language than that of private higher secondary level .Similarly, the Nepali medium ELT students were found statistically significantly highly less proficient in English language than that of English medium. The result further showed that there was statistically significant difference in the English language proficiency level of higher secondary level students in Nepal from different streams

The Study of the Metalinguistic Knowledge of English by Students in an Intensive and a Traditional Course

The goal of the current research was to study the relationship among learning contexts and, levels of metalinguistic knowledge of the Iranian intermediate EFL learners. This research explores the level of learners’metalinguistic knowledge in English in two different contexts (traditional and intensive courses). Participants included 44 intermediate students at Shoukoh Language Institute, Zanjan, Iran. The selection violated the randomization criterion, thus the quasi-experimental was taken for the current study. The instruments used for data collection were Nelson English Language Proficiency Test (NELPT) as a placement test which used to measure level of students prior to the experiment and, a metalinguistic knowledge English test (MKET) was also, administered at the beginning and ending the semester as pre and post-test to measure their metalinguistic knowledge. The data collected from the administration of the above mentioned two tests were submitted to different statistical analysis such as ANCOVA, one independent sample t-test and, one paired sample t-test. The results revealed that there was a significant distinction between two sets performance in the metalinguistic test. An intensive English course had an important helpful influence on MKE of the students. They enhanced their MKE in an intensive semester. As an implication of this study, the findings will motivate language teachers to focus on intensive semester because intensive instruction was found to be effective in improving the EFL learners’ MKE. Further study is needed before the results of the research can be generalized.

The effect of L2 English proficiency on request, advice and apology of L1 Turkish-L2 English learners

Since Bachman and Palmer (1996) and Canale and Swain (1980) introduction of “pragmatic competence” in the field of L2 acquisition, its relation to other factors interacting with it has attracted attention of a number of researchers. The present study aims to explore the intertangled relation between two competences (namely pragmatic and structural) in three distinct areas such as request, advice and apology in L2 context. For the purposes of the current study, two data collection tools are employed. The first one is English Language Proficiency Test while the second is a discourse completion task. The latter consists of three subsections and each subsection involves four cases each of which targets exchanges between interlocutors with equal statues. The findings suggest that even though two distinct proficiency groups differ for some cases like requests, L2 proficiency is not a comprehensive indicator of L2 pragmatic competence development on its own.

The Relationship between Media Literacy and Listening Comprehension among Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between media literacy and listening comprehension among Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To this end, after conducting Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), 84 Iranian EFL learners at intermediate levels of English language proficiency were selected. Then, the media literacy questionnaire (Media Literacy Self-assessment Scale (MLSS)), developed by Chang et al. (2011), with 13 items and a listening comprehension test (TOEFL Listening: Lecture (1) (2015)) with ten multiple-choice questions was used to measure the learners’ media literacy and their level of listening comprehension ability. To test the possible correlation between media literacy and the learners’ listening comprehension, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used. The findings revealed that there was a positive relationship between media literacy and listening comprehension.

English

The study investigates the effect of English Language proficiency on student's performance in cataloguing and classification courses in polytechnic-based library schools in Nigeria. This is against the background of the phobia the students have for cataloguing and classification. Descriptive survey method was adopted while a questionnaire, English Language proficiency test and cataloguing and classification test were used for data collection. Total enumeration technique was used to select all 1019 HND students from four purposively selected Nigerian polytechnics. Data were analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation at 0.05 level of significance. The students' performance in the English language proficiency test is in the following order; Federal Polytechnic Offa (X=38.45); Federal Polytechnic Oko (X=37.15); Federal Polytechnic Kaduna (X=32.82); and Federal Polytechnic Nekede. Mean scores for cataloguing and classification test were: Federal Polytechnic, Kaduna (X=46.044); Federal Polytechnic, Nekede (X=45.432); Federal Polytechnic, Oko (X=44.229) and Federal Polytechnic Offa (X=42.625). The study revealed that English Language proficiency has a significant correlation with performance in cataloguing and classification courses. The study recommended that secondary school authorities in Nigeria should provide adequate resources for teaching English language so that the potential polytechnic students will have a good background in English language to enhance their performance in cataloguing and classification. The general studies programme in English in Nigerian polytechnics should be reviewed to make it more effective while the library schools should provide adequate resources for the teaching and learning cataloguing and classification for enhanced performance. Key words: English Language proficiency, Student's performance, cataloguing and classification courses, polytechnic-based library schools, Nigeria.

PROFICIENCY LEVEL AND LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES AMONG JORDANIAN STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

This study examines the relationship between proficiency level and language learning strategies (LLSs) among Jordanian students enrolled at Universiti Utara Malaysia. The frequency level of the LLSs employed by the students was also investigated. The theoretical foundation for the study was provided by three comprehensive theories which are the Behaviorism, the Cognitive Psychology, and the Schema Theory. The data for the LLSs was obtained from using Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) that classifies six different strategies: 1) Memory Strategy (MS), (2) Cognitive Strategy (COG), (3) Compensation Strategy (COMPS), (4) Metacognitive Strategies (MET), (5) Affective Strategy (AFCS) and (6) Social Strategies (SOC). The frequency of the students’ overall use of LLSs was determined on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from high frequency use (3.5-5.0), medium frequency use (2.5-3.49), to low frequency use (1.0-2.49). Questionnaires were distributed and collected from a total of 97 students. Meanwhile, the students’ level of language proficiency was determined by their scores in the UUM English Language Proficiency Test (ELPT). Upon using the multiple regression analysis, the results show that the students used language learning strategies at a high frequency level. In addition, this study shows that there is a positive relationship between language learning strategy and proficiency level. These results indicate that proficiency level plays a vital role in determining the kinds of language learning strategy used. Curriculum designers and related bodies in Jordan should increase focus on the role of language learning strategies in promoting the acquisition of English language proficiency. The study also opens up avenues for more studies on language learning strategies not only in Jordan, but also in other countries where this area of study is lacking.

The Washback of the TOEFL iBT in Vietnam

Washback, or the influence of testing on teaching and learning, has received considerable attention in language testing research over the past twenty years. It is widely argued that testing, particularly high-stakes testing, exerts a powerful influence, whether intended or unintended, positive or negative, on both teachers and learners. This article investigates the washback effects of a high-stakes English language proficiency test, the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT), in Vietnam. Vietnam, a developing country whose educational philosophies differ from those underpinning the TOEFL iBT, provided a unique context to explore the test's washback. In the course of this study, four teachers were observed and teaching materials were collected from educational institutions in Vietnam. The study revealed that the TOEFL iBT influenced both what the teachers taught and how they taught but its effects were mediated by the use of test preparation materials.

The Washback of the TOEFL iBT in Vietnam

Washback, or the influence of testing on teaching and learning, has received considerable attention in language testing research over the past twenty years. It is widely argued that testing, particularly high-stakes testing, exerts a powerful influence, whether intended or unintended, positive or negative, on both teachers and learners. This article investigates the washback effects of a high-stakes English language proficiency test, the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT), in Vietnam. Vietnam, a developing country whose educational philosophies differ from those underpinning the TOEFL iBT, provided a unique context to explore the test's washback. In the course of this study, four teachers were observed and teaching materials were collected from educational institutions in Vietnam. The study revealed that the TOEFL iBT influenced both what the teachers taught and how they taught but its effects were mediated by the use of test preparation materials.

Editorial

Welcome to the Summer 2016 issue of Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice. In this issue, you will find some light and not so light summer reading—two substantive articles, an instructional module on a hot topic (simulation studies), and a new feature, the Gallery of Winners that showcases the top 10 graphics and visuals submitted for NCME's 2016 competition. Many of you attending the NCME breakfast this past April in Washington, DC, may remember seeing some of the winning entries. The first article is titled “Validating English Language Proficiency Assessment Uses for English Learners: Academic Language Proficiency and Content Assessment Performance,” written by Mikyung Kim Wolf and Molly Faulkner-Bond of the Educational Testing Service. As these researchers note, many states use standards-based English language proficiency test scores to support high-stakes decisions for students with limited ability in English. Using a series of hierarchical linear models, this work unpacks the complex relationships among social language use, academic language abilities, and performance on English language proficiency tests of the type used in states’ accountability systems. This work stresses the importance of looking more deeply at the constructs underlying most English language proficiency tests, particularly when these test scores have implications for policy and practice. “It was the best of tests, it was the worst of tests, it reflected a policy of wisdom, it reflected a policy of foolishness.” This is the opening line of our second article, “A Tale of Two Tests (and of Two Examinees)” by Amanda L. Clauser and her colleague at the National Board of Medical Examiners, Howard Wainer. This article, I suspect, will be of interest to both educational measurement specialists and policymakers. Clauser and Wainer show how making high-stakes decisions on the basis of multiple measures—a common practice in U.S. schools—can lead to an increased likelihood of falsely rejecting otherwise qualified examinees. They argue persuasively for thinking more about the tradeoff of making false positive vs. false negative decisions or classifications. It is a good read. To further our commitment to improve the teaching and learning of methods and statistical practices in educational measurement, we have a module in our Instructional Topics in Educational Measurement Series (ITEMS) titled “Conducting Simulation Studies in Psychometrics” developed and written by colleagues from the National Board of Medical Examiners, Richard A. Feinberg and Jonathan D. Rubright. Simulation studies are, more and more, being carried on a host of psychometric issues—including new methods for differential item functioning (DIF) analysis, equating studies, factor analysis, and subscore validity studies. Using code written in R, and made available to readers, Feinberg and Rubright illustrate, using a worked example, how to design and carry out a simulation study. This is must reading for quantitative (i.e., psychometric) researchers because Monte Carlo simulation studies have become a powerful tool for testing model-based assumptions and parameter estimates in something of a controlled environment. My thanks to our two colleagues for taking on the development of this instructional module. In addition to these three substantive articles, this issue offers Summer readers with a bit lighter fare: a close-up look at the winners of NCME's Spring 2016 Visuals competition. Our colleague Katherine Furgol Castellano did a fantastic job organizing the competition, rounding up judges, notifying the winners, and making the entire competition fun and informative for our NCME friends and colleagues. Our heartfelt thanks go to Katherine. As we go to press, the annual NCME meeting in Washington, DC, has come to a close. This year's theme Foundations and Frontiers: Advancing Educational Measurement for Research, Policy, and Practice offered us a particularly timely framework for the meeting. Kudos to Andrew Ho and Matt Johnson for all their hard work as the Annual Meeting Co-Chairs. They made a very challenging task look easy. My colleagues on the editorial team and I will be spending more than a few afternoons this spring and summer combing through the NCME program and the affiliated online paper repository looking for papers to publish. In addition, as always, we welcome your suggestions for commentaries, special issue topics, and instructional modules and look forward to hearing from all of you. Enjoy the summer!

Conceptualizing Accessibility for English Language Proficiency Assessments

AbstractThis paper is the second in a series from Educational Testing Service (ETS) that conceptualizes next‐generation English language proficiency (ELP) assessment systems for K‐12 English learners (ELs) in the United States. The first paper articulated a high‐level conceptualization of next‐generation ELP assessment systems (Hauck, Wolf, & Mislevy, 2016), the third paper addressed issues related to summative ELP assessments that emerged from the presentations and discussions at the English Language Proficiency Assessment Research working meeting (Wolf, Guzman‐Orth, & Hauck, 2016), and the fourth paper focused on a key concern within such systems—the initial identification and classification of ELs (Lopez, Pooler, & Linquanti, 2016). The goal of this paper is to address accessibility issues in the context of ELP assessments and to discuss critical considerations to improve the accessibility of ELP assessments for ELs and ELs with disabilities. Although accessibility for ELs and ELs with disabilities who are taking content assessments is also important, a discussion about content assessments is beyond the scope of the paper at this time. In this paper, we discuss challenges and areas of possible directions to pursue for ongoing and future ELP assessment development, policy implications, and research considerations to improve the ELP testing experience for all users.

The Trends of Japanese Students’ Participation in Study Abroad Programmes

This article examines the trends in Japanese students who participate in study abroad programmes (“mobile students”). Features of recent Japanese mobile students are discussed, and case studies of 23 Japanese university students who have finished short-term study abroad programmes are examined to determine their awareness of, and any changes in, soft-skills, attitudes, and so on. A semi-structured interview method was adopted for the case study interviews, and G-TELP (General Test of English Language Proficiency) was used as a preand post-test to evaluate “hard skills”. Although these hard skills showed no statistically significant improvements, interviews indicate changes in awareness and soft skills. Finally, a suggestion is made regarding how to improve and offer more effective short-term programmes for Japanese mobile students.

The Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners’ Self- efficacy Beliefs and Reading Comprehension Ability

The purpose of this study was to find out if language learners’ self-efficacy beliefs affect the reading comprehension achievement of EFL learners in Iran. A convenience sample of 120 learners from different language schools participated in this study. A self-efficacy questionnaire was developed to measure students’ self-efficacy beliefs. To measure their reading comprehension ability, the reading part of Michigan Test, as a test of English language proficiency was adopted and administered to the participants. The Pearson product-moment formula demonstrated that there was a significant relationship between self-efficacy and reading comprehension, and the correlation between self-efficacy and reading comprehension was positive. Therefore, it might be postulated that the more self-efficacious the learners are, the better they have answered the reading comprehension questions. The results of the statistical analysis also led the researcher to conclude that the relationship between language learners' self-efficacy beliefs is not affected by gender. Key words: Self-efficacy, Reading Comprehension, Language Proficiency

THE EFFECT OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES ON EFL LEARNERS' AFFECTIVE TRAITS IN COMPUTER-ASSISTED AND CONVENTIONAL CONTEXTS

Ponte Academic JournalSep 2016, Volume 72, Issue 9 THE EFFECT OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES ON EFL LEARNERS' AFFECTIVE TRAITS IN COMPUTER-ASSISTED AND CONVENTIONAL CONTEXTSAuthor(s): Abbas Ali Zarei ,Venus AbdiJ. Ponte - Sep 2016 - Volume 72 - Issue 9 doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2016.9.25 Abstract:The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of instructional techniques (blended learning, jigsaw, and scaffolding) on Iranian EFL learners\' reading and learner-related traits (anxiety, attitude and motivation) in computer-assisted and conventional contexts. To this end, 171 male and female intermediate level Iranian EFL learners were selected based on cluster sampling. The Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) was administered to the participants to make sure that there were no significant differences among the participants in terms of their language proficiency level. There were three main groups and each group was randomly assigned to a different treatment condition. Group A was instructed through the blended learning technique, Group B through the jigsaw technique and Group C through the scaffolding technique. Three questionnaires were used to investigate learner-related traits of attitude and motivation as well as learners\' reading anxiety. These questionnaires were used twice in this study, at the beginning of the course as a pretest and at the end of the course as a posttest. Having given the tests and collected the data, the researchers utilized ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) to analyze the data. The results indicated that these techniques have a significant impact on reducing learners\' anxiety and improving their attitude, whereas they have no differential effect on learners\' motivation. These findings may have pedagogical and theoretical implications for language learners, teachers, materials developers and policy makers. Download full text:Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution Username Password

The Effects of Attitude & Motivation on the Use of Cognitive & Metacognitive Strategies among Iranian EFL Undergraduate Readers

Studies in reading strategies bring together the assumption that individual characteristics may influence reading performance; different readers may process the same text in different ways, depending on their purposes, motivation, attitudes, interests and background knowledge. The research aims to study the effect of motivation and attitude on the use of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies among EFL undergraduate students who passed all reading comprehension modules. For this purpose, University of Ahvaz of Iran was chosen as a case study. 72 students have had this feature. Among these students, 51 homogenous students, based on their performance on Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (2010) were selected to take part in this study to fill two questionnaires and took a reading. After checking the reliability and validity of the instruments, a normality parametric test was used to ensure normality distribution of data using SPSS 20 software. To analyze the data, t-test and Pearson correlation test were performed. The findings of the research pointed to the impact of EFL learners’ level of motivation and attitude, on their reading comprehension ability indicating a relatively high direct correlation (0.67). The results also revealed that the highly motivated students were in favor of using cognitive and metacognitive strategies more than less motivated ones. Overall, the finding suggests that learners' individual differences in terms of their motivation and attitude levels should be taken into account in their development of reading comprehension skills and reading strategy use.

Enhancing the Interpretability of the Overall Results of an International Test of English-Language Proficiency

The purpose of this study was to enhance the meaning of the scores of an English-language test by developing performance levels and descriptors for reporting overall test performance. The levels and descriptors were intended to accompany the total scale scores of TOEFL Junior® Standard, an international test of English as a second/foreign language. The study addressed two issues: the number of performance levels that could be meaningfully reported and the information that should be included in the performance level descriptors. Data from 3,607 students who took an operational test form were used. Although our methodology built to some extent on earlier work (Papageorgiou et al., 2015), we demonstrate how content and construct differences between the tests of each study dictated use of different types of data in order to construct meaningful performance descriptors and select the cut-offs for the levels. We emphasize the importance of establishing the psychometric quality of the reported overall levels and the empirical basis for the content of their performance descriptors, and we discuss the implications of our work for similar efforts in the future.