ERIC Number: ED421498
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1998-Apr
Pages: 34
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Differential Item Functioning and Language Translation: A Cross-National Study with a Test Developed for Certification.
Price, Larry R.; Oshima, T. C.
Often, educational and psychological measurement instruments must be translated from one language to another when they are administered to different cultural groups. The translation process often necessarily introduces measurement inequivalence. Therefore, an examination may be said to exhibit differential functioning if the test provides a consistent advantage to one particular race or culture through the manner in which the test items are written. One thousand American and 1,134 Japanese entry-level examinees participating in a scuba diving certification course took a standardized criterion mastery test for certification. The parametric framework Differential Functioning of Items and Tests (DFIT) proposed by N. Raju, W. van der Linden, and P. Fleer (1992) was used to detect differential item functioning (DIF). Out of a total of 30 items, 10 were found to exhibit significant noncompensatory DIF. Differential test functioning was also found to be significant. This paper demonstrates that the new DFIT technique can be applied successfully to the translated data, and that possible causes for the differential functioning can be examined using results from the DFIT analysis. (Contains 3 figures, 5 tables, and 25 references.) (Author/SLD)
Publication Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data; Reports - Evaluative; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A