Premium
DETERMINING THE RELIABILITY, VALIDITY, AND SCALABILITY OF THE GRADUATED DICTATION TEST
Author(s) -
Fouly Kamal A.,
Cziko Gary A.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb00361.x
Subject(s) - dictation , test (biology) , reliability (semiconductor) , language proficiency , scale (ratio) , psychology , computer science , natural language processing , speech recognition , mathematics education , biology , paleontology , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics
The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability, validity, and scalability of a new technique for constructing, administering, and scoring dictation tests to measure second language proficiency. The “graduated” dictation test used in this study involved the auditory presentation of progressively longer text segments to be written down by the examinees. A total of 624 students learning English as a second language at an American university took the dictation test and several other measures of English‐language proficiency. The results of this study demonstrate that the graduated dictation task is a reliable and valid language testing technique. Using Mokken's criteria of scalability, the test was also shown to constitute a valid cumulative scale with no non‐scale items. These findings and the advantages of this technique over commonly used dictation tests are discussed.