Validating a Test Designed to Assess Esl Proficiency at Lower Developmental Levels

Abstract

This exploratory study examined relationships between a test designed to assess Englishlanguage listening comprehension and reading skills in samples of nonnative-English speakers at lower levels of developed proficiency in English as a second or foreign language (ESL or EFL). The test--called ESL-EZY--was developed by using items similar to but easier, on the average, than those being used in an existing ESL proficiency test designed for intermediate-or higher-level ESL users/learners. This paper reports evidence regarding the relationship between ESL-EZY scores and teachers' ratings of oral English proficiency in samples--assessed in diverse settings in the United States and Japan--selected to include subgroups that tend to differ relatively widely in average level of developed English proficiency. Scores on ESL-EZY were found to correlate relatively strongly with teachers' ratings within the respective subgroups; correlations were especially strong in relatively less proficient subgroups, suggesting that for younger ESL-students and other ESLlearners with limited developed functional proficiency in English as a foreign or second language, a test embodying properties similar to those represented by ESL-EZY might provide useful supplementary assessment information.

Recent developments in language assessment and the case of four large-scale tests of ESOL ability

“…TOEIC validation activities began when the first operational version of the test was launched in Japan (Woodford 1982). Investigators found relatively high degrees of correspondence between Japanese examinees' performance on the TOEIC Listening and Reading components and other direct assessments of listening and reading ability (Woodford 1982; Wilson 1999). Initial validation activities included computing correlations between the TOEIC Reading section and two different components of the TOEFL (the Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Section and the Structure and Written Expression Section).…”

Appropriateness of the TOEIC® Bridge test for students in three countries of South America

“…The primary evidence that TOEIC Bridge measures English language proficiency comes from the careful way in which language testing experts design and assemble the test so as to include a variety of important English language tasks. Additional, albeit indirect, validity evidence is provided by the validity study of Wilson (1999) for the ESL-EZY test that later became TOEIC Bridge. In this study, scores on ESL-EZY were found to correlate relatively strongly with teachers' ratings.…”

Toeic®/Lpi Relationships in Academic and Employment Contexts in Thailand

“…Relatively strong correlations were observed in each of several university samples. An informal, ad hoc, modified version of the ACTFL Speaking scale was used to obtain teachers' ratings of English speaking proficiency for a sample of secondary-level international students studying or planning to study in the United States (Wilson, 1999). Whether rendered by native-English-speaking EFL teachers or their nonnative-English-speaking counterparts, teachers' ratings according to the modified speaking scalebased on naturalistic, classroom observation-were relatively strongly correlated with students' scores on an experimental, "easier" version of the TOEIC.…”