COVID-19 has disrupted higher education globally, and there is scarce information about the "learning loss" in university students throughout this crisis. The goal of the study was to compare scores in a large-scale knowledge diagnostic exam applied to students admitted to the university, before and during the pandemic. Research design…

Purpose: Measuring the growth of young children's vocabulary is important for researchers seeking to understand language learning as well as for clinicians aiming to identify early deficits. The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) are parent report instruments that offer a reliable and valid method for measuring early…

This study attempts to explain a systematic phenomenon that has been described in interlanguage grammars crosslinguistically: Null-Prep, which consists of omitting the obligatory preposition in certain movement constructions. We propose that Null-Prep is not related to lack of knowledge of "wh"-movement, as previously assumed, but to…

In this study we investigated how English learners (ELs) interacted with "®" summative English language arts (ELA) and mathematics items, the embedded online tools, and accessibility features. We focused on how EL students navigated the assessment items; how they selected or constructed their responses; how they interacted with the…

This dissertation aims to identify the locus of L2 processing inefficiency. Previous studies suggest that non-native processing is a specific result of an inefficient predictive mechanism that limits the ability of learners to generate linguistic expectations (Gruter, Rohde, & Schafer, 2014; 2016). Thus, this study employs two distinct online…

Competition Model studies of second language learners have demonstrated that there is a gradual replacement of first language cues for thematic role assignment by second language cues. The current study introduced two methodological innovations in the investigation of this process. The first was the use of mouse-tracking methodology (Spivey, 2007)…

This study investigates whether adult second language learners' online processing of "wh"-dependencies is constrained by island constraints on movement. Proficiency-matched Spanish and Korean learners of English completed a grammaticality judgment task and a stop-making-sense task designed to examine their knowledge of the relative…

This document describes a solution to a problem in the automatic content scoring of the multilingual character-by-character highlighting item type. This solution is language independent and represents a significant enhancement. This solution not only facilitates automatic scoring but plays an important role in clustering students' responses;…

When power tests include a time limit, it is important to assess the possibility of "speededness" for examinees. Research on differential speededness in the past has included looking at gender and ethnic subgroups in the United States on paper and pencil tests. The needs of a global audience necessitated, and the availability of computer…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether children exposed to 2 languages would benefit from the phonotactic probability cues of a single language in the same way as monolingual peers and to determine whether crosslinguistic influence would be present in a fast-mapping task. Method: Two groups of typically developing children…

In 2006, a consortium of state departments of education, led by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the Council of Chief State School Officers, was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to investigate methods of determining comparability of variations of states' assessments used to meet the requirements of the…

The Voice-Interactive Depression Assessment System (VIDAS) is a computerized speech recognition application for screening depression based on the Center for Epidemiological Studies--Depression scale in English and Spanish. Study 1 included 50 English and 47 Spanish speakers. Study 2 involved 108 English and 109 Spanish speakers. Participants…

Explores whether the functional element effect (Muysken, 1997), often observed in production, is replicated in on-line comprehension results. Compared results of published frequency counts involving Spanish-English code switches with comprehension-timed experimental results. (Author/VWL)

Examined the effectiveness of a nonbiased computerized language screening test, the Kidtalk Interactive Diagnostic Test of Aptitude for Language Knowledge (KIDTALK), in differentiating children on basis of diagnostic category but not ethnic/linguistic background. Found a significant difference between scores of the language learning disabled and…

Analyzes the computer program, "Question Mark," produced in England and designed to be a testing tool for large second-language classes. Using this tool, it is possible to create and edit up to 500 questions using any one of 8 different question types. The program also can provide a running score for students using it. Notes that student…