Research on anxiety and motivation in second language (L2) learning is proliferating. However, these two individual differences are commonly measured by self-report questionnaires, the psychometric properties of which have been questioned. Building on previous works on study quality, this methodological synthesis systematically describes and…

Cites evidence showing that the "natural order" found using the Bilingual Syntax Measure to measure morpheme order is not an artifact of the test. (Author/AM)

Reports on study in which students of Hebrew as a second language took four versions of oral proficiency test. Results indicate that different speech styles and topics significantly affected students' scores, and correlational analyses between pairs pointed to low reliability and lack of stability of the test. Urges caution in making decisions…

Addresses the issues of whether test scores are affected by the prior availability of the items on a test. Concludes that, while disclosing items significantly affects test scores, the magnitude of the disclosure effect drecreases with an increase in the size of the disclosed pool. (EKN)

Reports on an experiment designed to test the reliability of the cloze procedure in second language testing, specifically as a measure of overall language proficiency, and as a measure whose results are independent of style. (AM)

Discusses a study of the reliability of a categorical instrument for evaluating compositions written by upper intermediate university English as a second language students. The instrument tests organization, logical development of ideas, grammar, mechanics, and style. Results indicate that the scoring instrument is moderately reliable. (SED)

Presents findings from an experiment that sought to determine the minimal number of blanks required to ensure parallelism in cloze tests, differing only in the point at which deletion starts. Results showed the required minimum depended on the scoring methods used, with exact-word tests requiring about 100 blanks and acceptable-word tests…

A study to evaluate seven commonly employed reading comprehension testing techniques in terms of predictive validity, difficulty and discriminability is described. (Author/RM)

Describes a study which examined the reliability, validity, and scalability of a new technique for constructing, administering, and scoring dictation tests to measure second language proficiency. Findings indicate that such tests can be constructed easily by dividing a coherent text into segments of increasing length. (SED)

Reports the results of a study which sought to investigate the validity of the oral interview in testing language proficiency, in particular that of adult students of English as a Second Language. (Author/AM)

Examines claims that unconscious second language learning under implicit and incidental conditions is insensitive to measures of individual differences in cognitive abilities, in contrast to learning under conscious rule-search and instructed conditions. Findings revealed that only in the incidental condition was the extent of learning and…

Investigates factors influencing Japanese university students' expository writing in English. Quantitative analysis revealed that students' second-language (L2) proficiency, first-language writing ability, and metaknowledge were significant in explaining L2 writing ability variance. An explanatory model for writing ability in English as a Foreign…

Assesses the validity of Language Assessment Scales (LAS) and a cloze test in measuring language proficiency. The LAS and two written cloze passages were administered to 28 Mexican-American third graders enrolled in bilingual classes. The cloze test correlated significantly only with the California Test of Basic Skills. (Author/LMO)

Investigates the reliability of measures of linguistic accuracy in second language writing. The study uses a holistic scale, error-free T-units, and an error classification system on the essays of English-as-a-Second-Language students and discusses why disagreements arise within a rater and between raters. (24 references) (Author/CK)