The references to the kinematic dimension of experience in the technical sphere yield constitutive concepts related to technical consistency and constancy. On the norm side, the design principle of developing an applied linguistic intervention that is reliable becomes prominent, and on the factual side the internal technical consistency of the…

Background: Pragmatic communication difficulties encompass many distinct behaviours, including the use of vague and/or insufficient language, a common characteristic following traumatic brain injury (TBI) that negatively impacts psychosocial outcomes. Existing assessments evaluate pragmatic communication broadly, often with only one or two items…

Purpose: This study examined the internal consistency reliability, interrater reliability, and concurrent validity of the norm-referenced Test of Early Written Language--Third Edition (TEWL-3) to determine if it is an appropriate measure to use when determining if elementary children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) meet grade-level writing…

Purpose: This study aims (a) to assess the psychometric properties of a French adaptation of the Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS-Fr), a comprehensive test of pragmatic abilities for French-speaking adolescents and adults, and (b) to use it to study lifespan variations in pragmatic abilities, to determine when…

Studies have shown that raising L2 learners' metaphor awareness contributes to the acquisition of figurative language, which fosters students' development of language skills. However, the instruments measuring metaphor awareness, in the majority of relevant research, did not seem to have undergone proper methodological procedures for checking…

The credibility of conclusions arrived at in quantitative research depends, to a large extent, on the quality of data collection instruments used to quantify language and non-language constructs. Despite this, research into data collection instruments used in Applied Linguistics and particularly in the thesis genre remains limited. This study…

Globalization and increases in the numbers of English language learners have led to a growing demand for English proficiency assessments of spoken language. In this paper, we describe the development of an automatic pronunciation scorer built on state-of-the-art deep neural network models. The model is trained on a bespoke human-rated dataset that…

An increasing number of language testing companies are developing and deploying deep learning-based automated essay scoring systems (AES) to replace traditional approaches that rely on handcrafted feature extraction. However, there is hesitation to accept neural network approaches to automated essay scoring because the features are automatically…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop an accurate test scale for vocabulary comprehension ability applicable to Mandarin-speaking preschool children aged 3-5. Methods: First, an initial scale was developed and evaluated using the expert consultation method. Subsequently, 490 typically developing 3-5-year-old Mandarin-speaking children…

This study explores the potential of OpenAI's ChatGPT-4 (gpt-4-0613) as an automated essay scoring (AES) tool in a trial involving 300 essays from an American university's academic English program placement test. Three prompting strategies (minimal/detailed rubric, require/not require rationale, and with/without scoring examples) were tested for…

This paper discusses the challenges of defining coherence in the context of oral language assessment literacy and proposes that better understanding of the construct can be achieved through a systemic-functional linguistic lens. Coherence is taken to be a foundational quality of written and spoken discourse and is a standard feature in the…

This study reports on the feasibility of using the Test of Complex Syntax- Electronic (TECS-E), as a self-directed app, to measure sentence comprehension in children aged 4 to 5 ½ years old; how testing apps might be adapted for effective independent use; and agreement levels between face-to-face supported computerized and independent computerized…

This article focuses on rater severity and consistency and their relation to major changes in the rating system in a high-stakes testing context. The study is based on longitudinal data collected from 2009 to 2019 from the second language (L2) Finnish speaking subtest in the National Certificates of Language Proficiency in Finland. We investigated…

This article compares two methods for detecting local item dependence (LID): residual correlation examination and Rasch testlet modeling (RTM), in a commonly used 3:6 matching format and an extended matching test (EMT) format. The two formats are hypothesized to facilitate different levels of item dependency due to differences in the number of…

This paper evaluates the multistage adaptive test (MST) design of a large-scale academic language assessment (ACCESS) for Grades 1-12, with an aim to simplify the current MST design, using both operational and simulated test data. Study 1 explored the operational population data (1,456,287 test-takers) of the listening and reading tests of MST…