Strategic competence, or the cognitive resources necessary for utilizing language knowledge, is widely recognized as an essential component of second language (L2) ability. However, research on strategic competence in the context of L2 speaking assessment has been limited, and findings have been inconsistent, making it challenging to discern the…

The present dissertation investigated the impact of scales/scoring methods and prompt linguistic features on the measurement quality of L2 English elicited imitation (EI). Scales/scoring methods are an important feature for the validity and reliability of L2 EI test, but less is known (Yan et al., 2016). Prompt linguistic features are also known…

Few classroom measures of English language proficiency have been evaluated for reliability and validity. This research examined the concurrent and predictive validity of an oral language test, titled A Developmental English Language Proficiency Test (ADEPT), and the relationship to the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) in the…

This study examined the second language (L2) development of adult learners of Spanish at three levels of proficiency during and after a semester of instruction. A fundamental goal was to identify cognitive and psychosocial individual differences (IDs) that can explain between-learner variation over time in order to expand our understanding of the…

This dissertation reports development and validation studies of a Web-based standardized test of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL), designed to measure learners' off-line grammatical and pragmatic knowledge in multiple-choice format. Targeting Japanese majors in the U.S. universities and colleges, the test is designed to explore possible…