C-tests are gap-filling tests mainly used as rough and economical measures of second-language proficiency for placement and research purposes. A C-test usually consists of several short independent passages where the second half of every other word is deleted. Owing to their interdependent structure, C-test items violate the local independence…

Synthetically generated speech (SGS) has become an integral part of our oral communication in a wide variety of contexts. It can be generated instantly at a low cost and allows precise control over multiple aspects of output, all of which can be highly appealing to second language (L2) assessment developers who have traditionally relied upon human…

Given the significance of the test fairness, this study aimed to investigate a reading comprehension test for evidence of differential item functioning (DIF) based on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' gender and their mode of learning (conventional vs. distance learning). To this end, 514 EFL learners were asked to take a 30-item…

This study is an exploratory analysis of examinee behavior in a large-scale language proficiency test. Despite a number-right scoring system with no penalty for guessing, we found that 16% of examinees omitted at least one answer and that women were more likely than men to omit answers. Item-response theory analyses treating the omitted responses…

Foreign language testing is a multi-dimensional phenomenon and obtaining objective and error-free scores on learners' language skills is often problematic. While assessing foreign language performance on high-stakes tests, using different testing approaches including Classical Test Theory (CTT), Generalizability Theory (GT) and/or Item Response…

Test development is a crucial, yet difficult and time-consuming part of any educational system, and the task often falls all on teachers. Automatic item generation systems have recently drawn attention as they can reduce this burden and make test development more convenient. Such systems have been developed to generate items for vocabulary,…

The Multiple-choice (MC) item format is commonly used in educational assessments due to its economy and effectiveness across a variety of content domains. However, numerous studies have examined the quality of MC items in high-stakes and higher-education assessments and found many flawed items, especially in terms of distractors. These faulty…

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…

Distractor analyses are routinely conducted in educational assessments with multiple-choice items. In this research report, we focus on three item response models for distractors: (a) the traditional nominal response (NR) model, (b) a combination of a two-parameter logistic model for item scores and a NR model for selections of incorrect…

Multiple test tasks are available for assessing L2 collocation knowledge. However, few studies have investigated the characteristics of a variety of recognition and recall tasks of collocation simultaneously, and most research on L2 collocations has focused on verb-noun and adjective-noun collocations. This study investigates (1) the relative…

Performing routines in interlanguage is vitally important for EFL learners since it can cause embarrassment between speakers from different cultures. The present study aims to 1) investigate the reliability and validity of an interlanguge pragmatic competence test on routines in a Chinese EFL context with multiple choice discourse completion task…

Presented at the Annual National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) in New York in March 2008. This presentation explores how different item weighting can affect the effective weights, validity coefficents and test reliability of composite scores among test takers.

This article provides renewed converging empirical evidence for the hypothesis that asking test-takers to respond to text passages with multiple-choice questions induces response processes that are strikingly different from those that respondents would draw on when reading in non-testing contexts. Moreover, the article shows that the construct of…