Automated essay scoring (AES) has emerged as a secondary or as a sole marker for many high-stakes educational assessments, in native and non-native testing, owing to remarkable advances in feature engineering using natural language processing, machine learning, and deep-neural algorithms. The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness…

Cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs) have great promise for providing diagnostic information to aid learning and instruction, and a large number of CDMs have been proposed. However, the assumptions and performances of different CDMs and their applications in regard to reading comprehension tests are not fully understood. In the present study, we…

In this study, two alternative theoretical models were compared, in order to analyze which of them best explains primary school children's text comprehension skills. The first one was based on the distinction between two types of answers requested by the comprehension test: local or global. The second model involved texts' input modality: written…

The present study examines the relative importance of attributes within and across items by applying four cognitive diagnostic assessment models. The current study utilizes the function of the models that can indicate inter-attribute relationships that reflect the response behaviors of examinees to analyze scored test-taker responses to four forms…

Cloze tests have been the subject of numerous studies regarding their function and use in both first language and second language contexts (e.g., Jonz & Oller, 1994; Watanabe & Koyama, 2008). From a validity standpoint, one area of investigation has been the extent to which cloze tests measure reading ability beyond the sentence level.…

Gaining insights from domain experts into how they view communication in real world settings is recognized as an important authenticity consideration in the development of criteria to assess language proficiency for specific academic or occupational purposes. These "indigenous" criteria represent an articulation of the test construct and…

Placement and screening tests serve important functions, not only with regard to placing learners at appropriate levels of language courses but also with a view to maximizing the effectiveness of administering test batteries. We examined two widely reported formats suitable for these purposes, the discrete decontextualized Yes/No vocabulary test…

One core area of research in Second Language Acquisition is the identification and definition of developmental stages in different L2s. For L2 French, Bartning and Schlyter (2004) presented a model of six morphosyntactic stages of development in the shape of grammatical profiles. The model formed the basis for the computer program Direkt Profil…

This study is part of a larger one examining the comparability of the First Certificate in English and the Test of English as a Foreign Language. The general assumption of unidimensionality and goodness-of-fit were tested. Findings raise questions about the consequences of rejecting or retaining misfitting items. (60 references) (LB)

The assumption called PIRC (proportional item response curve) was tested in which PIRC was used to predict item scores of selected examinees on selected items. Findings show approximate accuracies of prediction for PIRC, the three-parameter logist model, and a modified Rasch model. (12 references) (Author/LB)

Uses structural equation modelling to examine the relationship between learning strategy use and second-language test performance (SLTP) in 1,382 high- and low-ability test takers. Results showed metacognitive strategy use and SLTP models produced similar factorial structures for each group; cognitive strategy use models differed. This suggests…