Examining Content Representativeness of a Young Learner Language Assessment: EFL Teachers’ Perspectives

Hsieh, Ching-Ni

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-22422-0_5

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Winke () demonstrated that collecting qualitative data from stakeholders provides important validity information, but noted that the study was limited in scope because only the teachers were surveyed. Similar limitations were described by Hsieh () after she investigated the validity of the TOEFL Primary by interviewing 17 experienced English teachers across 15 countries. Hsieh called for “empirical response data” from child test takers in future studies (p. 105).…”

Section: Why We Investigated the Cognitive Validity Of A Child Englismentioning

confidence: 80%

“…We undertook this research because there is a dearth of research on the validity of language tests for young children (noted by Cho & So, ; Hsieh, ; Nikolov, ). As reported by Cho and So (), test developers need to consider the cognitive development of young language learners to ensure that the test scores are interpreted in a valid way.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We conducted this interview‐based research with young children because the English language testing of young children has been controversial (Biggar, ; Carless & Lam, ; Cho & So, ; Hsieh, ; Menken, ; Nikolov, ; Winke, ). We found our qualitative data provided insights that our quantitative data could not provide, namely, what the children thought while being tested (as also found by Carless & Lam, ; Cho & So, ; Hsieh, ), why children selected the responses that they did, and whether those selections stemmed from a true measurement of the construct or from construct‐irrelevant issues (also found by Cho & So, ). For example, in this study we found that when children read the directions silently to themselves, there was no guarantee that they would understand (process) the directions, and this was true for native speakers and English learners alike.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With children, online think‐alouds may be difficult to implement “because children can be easily distracted and have difficulty focusing on free exploration tasks” (Oh & Wildemuth, , p. 202). Thus, with children, prior researchers used posttest interview methods (Carless & Lam, ; Cho & So, ) to investigate the cognitive validity and psychological impacts of child assessment, and they also evaluated the validity of child English language tests by interviewing experienced English language teachers (Hsieh, ; Winke, ).…”

Section: Test Validity Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is important to understand the cognitive validity of child English language tests because the tests are often used to define, as described by Nikolov (), what children are expected to be able to do in the language, given their level or stage of second language development. Furthermore, developers of tests for young language learners need to take into consideration natural age‐related limitations on the children's attention spans, working memory capacities, processing capacities, first language (L1) literacy, and world views and experiences (Hsieh, ). Such necessary considerations make the development of standardized tests for young language learners complex.…”

Section: Test Validity Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Cognitive Validity of Child English Language Tests: What Young Language Learners and Their Native‐Speaking Peers Can Reveal

et al. 2017

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This study investigated the cognitive validity of two child English language tests. Some teachers maintain that these types of tests may be cognitively invalid because native‐English‐speaking children would not do well on them (Winke, 2011). So the researchers had native speakers and learners of English aged 7 to 9 take sample versions of two standardized English reading and writing tests: the Young Learners Tests of English, Bronze and Silver, administered by Cambridge Michigan Language Assessments. They videotaped the children taking the tests, had them draw pictures of how they felt during testing, and interviewed them. The tests reliably discriminated learners from native speakers. However, 3 of 25 items on the Bronze test and 5 of 40 on the Silver test proved more difficult for native speakers than for language learners. The researchers interviewed the children to uncover why; incorrect responses stemmed from lack of assessment literacy or age‐related cognitive limitations, not deficits in English. The researchers discuss whether this is a problem and conclude that standardized language tests for children, even those already psychometrically reliable and valid, can be improved upon by interviewing child test takers. They stress that parallel information from same‐age, native‐English‐speaking peers is informative in revealing construct‐irrelevant variance.

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Section: Why We Investigated the Cognitive Validity Of A Child Englismentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Test Validity Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Test Validity Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The Cognitive Validity of Child English Language Tests: What Young Language Learners and Their Native‐Speaking Peers Can Reveal

et al. 2017

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Enabling Multilingual Practices in English Language Proficiency Assessments for Young Learners

López

2023

Handbook of Multilingual TESOL in Practice

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Assessing young learners’ foreign language abilities

Nikolov

Timpe‐Laughlin

2020

Lang. Teach.

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Abstract Given the exponential growth in the popularity of early foreign language programs, coupled with an emphasis of evidence-based instruction, assessing young learners’ (YLs) foreign language abilities has moved to center stage. This article canvasses how the field of assessing young learners of foreign languages has evolved over the past two decades. The review offers insights into how and why the field has developed, how constructs have been defined and operationalized, what language proficiency frameworks have been used, why children were assessed, what aspects of their foreign language proficiency have been assessed, who was involved in the assessment, and how the results have been used. By surveying trends in foreign language (FL) and content-based language learning programs involving children between the ages of 3 and 14, the article highlights research into assessment of and for learning, and critically discusses areas such as large-scale assessments and proficiency examinations, comparative and experimental studies, the impact of assessment, teachers’ beliefs and assessment practices, young learners’ test-taking strategies, age-appropriate tasks, alternative and technology-mediated assessment, as well as game-based assessments. The final section of the article highlights where more research is needed, thus outlining potential future directions for the field.

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Examining Content Representativeness of a Young Learner Language Assessment: EFL Teachers’ Perspectives

Cited by 5 publications

References 14 publications

The Cognitive Validity of Child English Language Tests: What Young Language Learners and Their Native‐Speaking Peers Can Reveal

The Cognitive Validity of Child English Language Tests: What Young Language Learners and Their Native‐Speaking Peers Can Reveal

Enabling Multilingual Practices in English Language Proficiency Assessments for Young Learners

Assessing young learners’ foreign language abilities

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