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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Does The Test Work? Evaluating A Web-Based Language Placement Test, Avizia Long, Sun-Young Shin, Kimberly Geeslin, Erik Willis
Does The Test Work? Evaluating A Web-Based Language Placement Test, Avizia Long, Sun-Young Shin, Kimberly Geeslin, Erik Willis
Faculty Publications
In response to the need for examples of test validation from which everyday language programs can benefit, this paper reports on a study that used Bachman’s (2005) assessment use argument (AUA) framework to examine evidence to support claims made about the intended interpretations and uses of scores based on a new web-based Spanish language placement test. The test, which consisted of 100 items distributed across five item types (sound discrimination, grammar, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and vocabulary), was tested with 2,201 incoming first-year and transfer students at a large, Midwestern public university. Analyses of internal consistency and validity revealed the …
Future Directions In Assessment: Influences Of Standards And Implications For Language Learning, Troy L. Cox, Margaret E. Malone, Paula Winke
Future Directions In Assessment: Influences Of Standards And Implications For Language Learning, Troy L. Cox, Margaret E. Malone, Paula Winke
Faculty Publications
As Foreign Language Annals concludes its 50th anniversary, it is fitting to review the past and peer into the future of standards-based education and assessment. Standards are a common yardstick used by educators and researchers as a powerful framework for conceptualizing teaching and measuring learner success. The impact of standards on language assessment, teaching, curricula, course design, and educational policy is indisputable, but can they even be more impactful, more beneficial? In this article, we reflect upon the role of language learning standards on world language practices and assessments and discuss standards’ design, implementation, and appropriation issues that will challenge …
Does Measuring L2 Utterance Fluency Equal Measuring Overall L2 Proficiency? Evidence From Five Languages, Wendy Baker-Smemoe, Dan P. Dewey, Jennifer Brown, Rob A. Martinsen
Does Measuring L2 Utterance Fluency Equal Measuring Overall L2 Proficiency? Evidence From Five Languages, Wendy Baker-Smemoe, Dan P. Dewey, Jennifer Brown, Rob A. Martinsen
Faculty Publications
The current study examined the relationship between overall second language (L2) proficiency and utterance fluency measures for several L2s in order to determine whether utterance measures can be used to predict L2 proficiency. The study measured the speech rate, number of hesitations, number and length of pauses, number and length of runs, and number of false starts using excerpts from 126 ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPIs) spoken by 86 participants. Forty of the participants provided pre‐ and post‐OPI speech samples, which also allowed examination of changes over time. All 86 participants were native English speakers who spoke L2 French, German, …