Validity of the Secondary Level English Proficiency Test

The study reported herein assessed levels and patterns of concurrent correlations for Listening Comprehension (LC) and Reading Comprehension (RC) scores provided by the Secondary Level English Proficiency (SLEP) test with direct measures of ESL speaking proficiency (interview rating) and writing proficiency (essay rating), respectively, and (b) the internal consistency and dimensionality of the SLEP, by analyzing intercorrelations of scores on SLEP item-type "parcels" (subsets of several items of each type included in the SLEP). Data for some 1,600 native-Japanese speakers (recent secondary-school graduates) applying for admission to Temple University-Japan (TU-J) were analyzed. The findings tended to confirm and extend previous research findings suggesting that the SLEP-which was originally developed for use with secondary-school students--also permits valid inferences regarding ESL listeningand reading-comprehension skills in postsecondary-level samples.