Improving the Psychometric, Criterion‐Referenced, and Practice Qualities of Integrative Language Tests *

The present research was conducted to determine whether modifications of existing integrative testing procedures could be made to improve the psychometric, criterion‐referenced, and practical qualities of those tests which involve text presentation and reconstruction. For this purpose, a dictation test constructed of 14 segments varying from 2 to 21 words in length was administered to three groups, one of foreign university students taking ESL courses, another of foreign students succeeding at graduate studies, and a third of native English‐speaking students. In addition, a “copytest” was created by presenting the same text on a computer‐controlled visual display screen in a manner directly analogous to that of the dictation test. The copytest was administered to a smaller group of foreign and native English‐speaking university students. Results of the dictation test indicated that scoring the protocols by segment using an exact‐spelling criterion provided an integrated measure of language proficiency with improved psychometric, criterion‐ referenced, and practical qualities. Of particular interest was the finding that the 14 dictation segments scored in this manner formed a Guttman scale of high reproducibility and scalability. The implications of these findings as well as those of the copytest are discussed.