To evaluate the sensitivity of multiple-choice cloze (MCC) tests that use different types of items--syntactic, semantic, and connective--to assess reading ability, 170 English as a foreign language (EFL) students in a vocational college in Taiwan were recruited. The students were divided into two groups (level A and level B) based on their scores…

The Performance Evaluation for Alaska's Schools (PEAKS) assessment is administered annually statewide to students in grades 3 through 9 in ELA and mathematics. It provides students the opportunity to show their understanding of "Alaska's English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics Standards." The assessments provide information to…

The main objective of the article is to compare several methods of evaluating multiple-choice options through classical item analysis. The methods subjected to examination include the tabulation of choice distribution, the interpretation of trace lines, the point-biserial correlation, the categorical analysis of trace lines, and the investigation…

The main purpose of this study is to investigate guessing in the Yes/No (YN) format vocabulary test. One-hundred-and-five university students took a YN test, a translation task and a multiple-choice vocabulary size test (MC VST). With matched lexical properties between the real words and the pseudowords, pseudowords could index guessing in the YN…

This paper describes details of the evaluation experiments for questions created by an automatic question generation system. Given a target word and one of its word senses, the system generates a multiple-choice English vocabulary question asking for the closest in meaning to the target word in the reading passage. Two kinds of evaluation were…

The objective of this study was to employ a new tool for assessing pragmatic "proficiency" (over "performance") in L2 students and to determine if pragmatic lessons on compliment sequences had a positive impact on L2 Spanish students' intercultural competence. To this end, students at a Midwestern college engaged in live video…

The present study aimed at investigating the effects of scaffolding strategies using input and output-oriented tasks on Iranian EFL learners' receptive and productive knowledge of lexical collocations. For this purpose, 540 adult intermediate-level EFL learners--both male and female--were selected and divided into six experimental groups; three…

Dynamic Assessment (DA) is proposed as a workable diagnostic tool in second or foreign language context. Compared to traditional non-dynamic testing, DA presents a more comprehensive account of human beings' abilities through addressing both the fully internalized abilities and the abilities that are in the process of being internalized. However,…

While aptitude has been seen to contribute to second language (L2) development, most studies have examined its contribution as a fixed trait, rather than viewing it as a dynamic, changing variable. There appears to have been little or no investigation of the role that aptitude plays in the development of L2 pragmatic ability. Therefore, this study…

The current study sought to examine the validity of a General English Achievement Test (GEAT), administered to university students in the fall semester of 2018-2019 academic year, by hybridizing differential information (DIF) and differential distractor function (DDF) analytical models. Using a purposive sampling method, from the target population…

In adaptive learning systems, various models are employed to obtain the optimal learning schedule and review for a specific learner. Models of learning are used to estimate the learner's current recall probability by incorporating features or predictors proposed by psychological theory or empirically relevant to learners' performance. Logistic…

Previous studies on lexical focus on form (FonF) have mostly centred on FonF in reading with a few pre-selected lexical items. This study investigated the contribution of oral incidental FonF to developing learners' lexical knowledge in a free discussion EFL class. Incidental FonF was provided to 15 upper-intermediate learners who participated in…

The present experiments investigated the influence of combined phonological and semantic information on lexical retrieval, metacognitive retrieval states, and selection in an immediate multiple-choice task. Younger and older adults attempted to retrieve words (e.g., abdicate) from low-frequency word definitions. Retrieval was preceded by primes…

The calibration of test materials generally involves the interaction between empirical analysis and expert judgement. This paper explores the extent to which scale familiarity might affect expert judgement as a component of test validation in the calibration process. It forms part of a larger study that investigates the alignment of the…

This document is provided by the Florida Department of Education to help prepare Adult and Career and Technical Students to take the Tests of Adult Basic Education (TABE) test. These tests are used to determine students' strengths that will assist them in successfully completing their programs. The TABE has three major areas: Reading, Language,…