This study provides information about the total and component scores of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). First, the study provides comparative global and component estimates of test-retest, alternate-form, and internal-consistency reliability, controlling for sources of measurement error inherent in the examinees and the testing…

In contrast to multiple-choice test questions, figural response items call for constructed responses and rely upon figural material, such as illustrations and graphs, as the response medium. Figural response questions in various science domains were created and administered to a sample of 347 fourth, 365 eighth, and 322 twelfth graders. Data were…

Results of a national survey on foreign language enrollments in United States public secondary schools are summarized. Aggregate data are provided for fall 1989, and more detailed data are included for fall 1990. Data indicate a 4.5% increase in secondary school language enrollments nationally since 1985. The increase for high schools alone was…

A study investigated the disparity between the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) competence of South African black children and the competence required to comprehend content subject textbooks. Two ESL schemes and two fifth-year general science textbooks were analyzed for differences in vocabulary, syntax, speech acts, cohesion and coherence.…

Over the past 3 years, the Mathematics Department of Grossmont College, in California, has examined the issues of course standards, instructor grading variability, and course placement. In 1990, a study was conducted to determine if the Elementary Algebra instructors with lower pass rates had higher standards, and if their students had a higher…

This curriculum guide for Indiana's foreign language education (1) establishes what proficiency is at the end of each of four instructional levels, through sets of competencies, or learning outcomes, to be achieved throughout that level; (2) defines progress throughout the sequence of levels in terms that can be readily understood; and (3)…

The strategies examinees employ when making item difficulty level choices in self-adapted computerized testing were investigated. Subjects were 148 college students (88 females and 60 males) in an introductory statistics course. The primary instrument was a self-adapted computerized algebra test used to measure student readiness for the statistics…

Assessors of literature learning have long been concerned with the issue of difficulty and the fundamental contradictions in the term "examination of literary understanding." An alternate view of literature is that although texts are finally indeterminate, a group of them has been set aside by communities as forming a part of the…

Two studies were conducted to examine teachers' and young children's perceptions of persistence in classroom settings. In the first, 35 elementary school teachers responded to interview questions about (1) the appropriateness of persistence in relation to other strategies children could use to accomplish difficult tasks, (2) children's…

To determine how the difficulty of print materials affected elementary school students' sight copying accuracy and productivity and to explain correlate variance related to copying, 149 students in grades four, six, and eight were assigned materials to copy for three minutes. All subjects copied passages at grade level and at two grades above and…

More and more faculty members are using web-based instruction as part of their course or as complete courses, which has resulted in an entire web-based instruction programs and virtual universities. As such, web-based instruction is one of the major areas that are becoming key to the development of the Web. To the contrary, despite having…

Variables and conditions that influence the learning of computer-presented expository text were investigated in this study, in which on-screen underlining was used as a learning aid to increase "mindful" processing of information. The effects of three intervening variables--amount of invested mental effort (AIME), learning style, and…

Two papers on "fag(sprog)lig Kommunikation"--languages for special purposes (LSP)--are presented. The first paper, in Danish, presents an alternative to the current structuralist oriented approach to the analysis of LSP as a kind of language in its own right and of texts written in this special kind of language. The approach is based on a more…

Thirteen classroom activities designed to provide active language practice for students of English as a second language are described. Some highlight a targeted grammatical structure, and others require that students work together to solve a problem. Each is designated by level of difficulty (beginning, intermediate, or advanced), skill focus…

This report explores an approach to item development and psychometric modeling which explicitly incorporates knowledge about the mental models used by examinees in the solution of items into a psychometric model that characterize performances on a test, as well as incorporating that knowledge into the item development process. The paper focuses on…