Although the Word Associates Format (WAF) is becoming more frequently used as a depth-of-knowledge measure, relatively little validation has been carried out on it. This report of two validation studies tackles various important WAF issues yet to be satisfactorily resolved. Study 1 conducted introspective interviews regarding students' WAF…

This study investigates the effect of Iranian EFL students' proficiency level on their ability in identifying paragraph boundaries of unparagraphed expository texts and in producing paragraph boundaries in their own L2 expository writings. Further, this study seeks the correlation between advanced and intermediate learners' ability to identify and…

This study responds to the Test of English as a Foreign Language[TM] (TOEFL[R]) research agenda concerning the need to understand the processes and knowledge that test-takers utilize. Specifically, it investigates the strategic behaviors test-takers reported using when taking the Speaking section of the TOEFL iBT[TM] (SSTiBT). It also investigates…

Three mental rotation tasks, the Card Rotation Task (CRT), the Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test (VMRT), and the Money Road-Map of Direction Sense (MRM), were administered to 60 deaf students from Gallaudet University to determine if mental rotation was predictive of scores on the ACT English or Math subtests. Other predictor variables, such as…

The report examines whether increasing competition from charter schools has a causal effect on the achievement of public school students in New York City, using a three-year longitudinal database of student test scores. As a measure of competition, it considers the percentage of students who left a public school for a charter school in the prior…

This article presents a test development project for classroom speaking assessment. With the aim of enhancing and specifically easing the process of test preparation and administration and generating positive washback effects on learning, we developed a semi-direct speaking test called the Story Retelling Speaking Test (SRST). Although a story…

The goal of this study was to examine the moderating role of pragmatic language in the relations between shyness and indices of socio-emotional adjustment in an unselected sample of early elementary school children. In particular, we sought to explore whether pragmatic language played a protective role for shy children. Participants were n = 167…

By school age, some bilingual children can score equivalently to monolinguals in receptive vocabulary but still lag in expressive vocabulary. In this study, we test whether bilingual children have greater difficulty with lexical access, as has been reported for adult bilinguals. School-aged French-English bilingual children were given tests of…

The second language group oral is a test of second language speaking proficiency, in which a group of three or more English language learners discuss an assigned topic without interaction with interlocutors. Concerns expressed about the extent to which test takers' personal characteristics affect the scores of others in the group have limited its…

Since the University Grants Committee (UGC) selected the academic module of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as the common English proficiency assessment for graduating undergraduate degree students in 2002, almost all the tertiary institutions in Hong Kong have offered IELTS preparation courses that aim at providing…

This article deals with some of the problems that have hindered the application of Samejima's and Thissen and Steinberg's multiple-choice models: (a) parameter estimation difficulties owing to the large number of parameters involved, (b) parameter identifiability problems in the Thissen and Steinberg model, and (c) their treatment of omitted…

The General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) was developed in 1999, commissioned by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. The purpose of the test is to provide individuals with a gauge of their English language proficiency and assist employers and educational institutions in selection and placement. Also, it aims to encourage the study of English…

Language learners need to feel secure and to be free of stress so they can focus on language tasks (Ellis, 1994). A language teacher should use different tools to encourage students and make them involved in learning process. Humor and song are effective tools, as they develop creativity and make the class environment an appropriate setting for…

The purpose of this study was to analyze student academic performance data from year-round calendar high schools across the United States in comparison to those of traditional calendar high schools within the same states. This study sought to determine if the mean passing scores of students for the last three academic years in four important…

This paper presents a series of experiments that tested the usefulness of teaching Spanish mood using an approach to Cognitive Grammar specifically developed for the foreign language classroom: "Operational Grammar." Mood selection is one of the most difficult aspects of learning Spanish as a FL, and it is one of the last features…