Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This report describes a reliability and validity study of the placement test which is used at the University of Surrey as a means of identifying students who may require English language support whilst studying at undergraduate or postgraduate levels. The English Language Institute is charged with testing all incoming stu dents, irrespective of their primary language or subject specialization. Fair and accurate assessment of student abilities, and referring individuals to appropriate language support courses (the in-sessional programme), is an essential support service to all academic departments. The goal of placement testing is to reduce to an absolute minimum the number of students who may face problems or even fail their academic degrees because of poor language ability or study skills. This study looks at the administrative and logistic constraints upon what can be done, and assesses the usefulness of the placement test developed within this context.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Apa 1985: Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Ascher, C. 1990: Assessing bilingual students for placement and instruction . ERIC Digest 65, ED322273. New York: ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education.

Assessment Systems Corporation 1994: RASCAL 3.5. Rasch analysis program. Minnesota, MN: ASC.

Brown, J.D. 1989: Improving ESL placement tests using two perspectives. TESOL Quarterly 23, 65-83.

Crocker, L. and Algina, J. 1986: Introduction to classical and modern test theory. Chicago, IL: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Farhady, H. 1983: On the plausibility of the unitary language proficiency factor. In Oller, J.W. , editor, Issues in language testing, Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 11-28.

Goodbody, M.W. 1993: Letting the students choose: a placement procedure for a pre-sessional course. In Blue, G.M. , editor, Language, learning and success: studying through English, London: Modem English Publications and the British Council, 49-57.

Linn, R.L. 1993: Linking results of distinct assessments. Applied Measurement in Education 6, 83-102.

Masters, G.N. 1990: Psychometric aspects of individual measurement. In de Jong , H.A.L. and Stevenson, D.K. , editors, Individualizing the assessment of language abilities, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 56-70.

10.

Paltridge, B. 1992: EAP placement testing: an integrated approach. English for Specific Purposes 11, 243-68.

11.

Petersen, N.S. , Kolen, M.J. and Hoover, H.D. 1989: Scaling, norming and equating. In Linn, R.L. , editor, Educational measurement, New York: National Council on Measurement in Education and Macmillan, 221-62.

12.

Popham, W.J. 1978: Criterion-referenced measurement. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

13.

Schmitz, C.C. and DelMas, R.C. 1990: Determining the validity of placement exams for developmental college curricula. Applied Measurement in Education 4, 37-52.

14.

Shohamy, E. 1983: The stability of oral proficiency assessment in the oral interview procedure. Language Learning 33, 527-40.

15.

— 1988: A proposed framework for testing the oral language of second foreign language learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 10, 165-79.

16.

— 1990: Language testing priorities: a different perspective. Foreign Language Annals 23, 385-94.

17.

Shohamy, E. , Reves, T. and Bejarano, Y. 1986: Introducing a new comprehensive test of oral proficiency . English Language Teaching Journal 40, 212-20.

18.

Truman, W.L. 1992: College placement testing. AMATYC Review 13, 58-64.

19.

Upshur, J.A. 1971: Objective evaluation of oral proficiency in the ESOL classroom . TESOL Quarterly 5, 47-59.

20.

van Weeren, J. 1981: Testing oral proficiency in everyday situations. In Klein-Braley, C. and Stevenson, D.K. , editors, Practice and problems in language testing. Volume 1, Frankfurt : Bern, 54-59.

21.

Wall, D. , Clapham, C. and Alderson, J.C. 1994: Evaluating a placement test. Language Testing 11, 321-344.

An English language placement test: issues in reliability and validity

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References