A Reading and Writing Placement Test: Design, Evaluation, and Analysis
نویسندگان
چکیده
Placement tests, along with the growing interest in their validation, have become increasingly important in English as a Second Language programs. To this end, the present paper illustrates procedures in designing a placement test and using it to evaluate students’ language ability by means of statistical analysis. 29 participants from three proficiency levels (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) took reading and writing placement test sections. Students’ performance at each proficiency level was analyzed separately and compared across proficiency levels. In addition, analyses of responses on a survey revealed a relationship between language learning attitudes and behaviors exhibited by the participants and their performance on the placement test. Through close examination of the process of placement test design, evaluation, and analysis, this paper provides practical guidelines for reading and writing placement testing.
منابع مشابه
The Impact of Guided Writing Practice on the Speaking Proficiency and Attitude of EFL Elementary Learners
Writing and speaking are the productive skills of a language and share similar components. However, there has been little attempt to investigate the impact of writing practice on the speaking proficiency of the learners. The present study using a pretest-posttest controlled group design in a quasi-experimental approach investigated the effect of guided writing practice on the speaking proficien...
متن کاملThe Comparative Effect of Reading-to-Write and Writing-Only Tasks on the Improvement of EFL Learners’ Writing Ability
The ability to write effectively is becoming progressively important and instruction in writing is assuming an increasing role in second and foreign language education. Students’ writing abilities have been tested through various writing tasks. Independent tasks of writing or writing-only tasks have been utilized to test students’ writing ability; however, they have been criticized for their la...
متن کاملThe Role of Willingness to Communicate and Motivation in Language Learning in Iran
Willingness to communicate and motivation can be two important affective variables to cause success in language achievement. The current study aimed to investigate the role of willingness to communicate (WTC) and second language motivational self-system (L2MSS) in relation to learners’ language achieve- ment. To this end, 100 homogeneous learners both male and female aged from 16 to 20 were cho...
متن کاملThe Impact of Observer Ring Technique on the Writing Achievement: A case of Iranian EFL Learners
This study was conducted to probe the effect of the observer ring technique on the participants’ writing achievement. In so doing, the researchers utilized a quasi-experimental design with 20 participants in the control group and 18 in the experimental group. Instrumentation included a writing handout, an Oxford Placement Test (standard proficiency test), and a rating scale of writing. As a tre...
متن کاملThe Effect of Variations in Integrated Writing Tasks and Proficiency Level on Features of Written Discourse Generated by Iranian EFL Learners
In recent years, a number of large-scale writing assessments (e.g., TOEFL iBT) have employed integrated writing tests to measure test takers’ academic writing ability. Using a quantitative method, the current study examined how written textual features and use of source material(s) varied across two types of text-based integrated writing tasks (i.e., listening-to-write vs. reading-to-write) and...
متن کامل