The Impact of Language Characteristics in Mathematics Test Items on the Performance of English Language Learners and Students With Disabilities

Linguistic Complexity, Schematic Representations, and Differential Item Functioning for English Language Learners in Math Tests

“…For example, items with ambiguous or multiple meaning words were more difficult than items with fewer or none of these features for both ELLs and non-ELLs in the fourth-grade KGMA, but this effect was not significant in the seventh and tenth grades (Shaftel et al, 2006). Likewise, the presence of idioms, uncommon words and/or words used in an uncommon way was not significantly correlated with (unconditional) item p value differences across ELLs and non-ELLs in a third-grade math subtest of a standardized achievement test (Abedi et al, 2005).…”

“…In the last decade, a few important empirical studies have investigated the relationship between some of these linguistic features and the difficulty (p value) of math word problems for ELLs and non-ELLs in elementary, middle, and high school levels (Abedi et al, 2005;Abedi & Lord, 2001;Abedi et al, 1998;Abedi et al, 1997;Lord, Abedi, & Poosuthasee, 2000;Shaftel, Belton-Kocher, Glasnapp, & Poggio, 2006). Although many of these studies did, as predicted, find a relationship between linguistic complexity and ELLs' performance in math word problems, the effect of specific linguistic features varied from test to test and from one grade to another.…”

“…Longer items exhibited greater p value differences across ELLs and nonELLs than shorter items did in the eighth-grade NAEP math test (Abedi et al, 1997) and the Stanford Achievement Test 9th Edition (SAT9; Lord et al, 2000). Also, longer items showed lower p values than shorter items for both ELLs and non-ELLs in the fourth-, seventh-, and tenth-grade Kansas general math assessments (KGMA; Shaftel et al, 2006).…”

“…Using multiple regression, Shaftel et al (2006) modeled item p value as a function of item length (and other linguistic features) for general students, ELLs, and students with disabilities in the 2000 KGMA administered in Grades 4, 7 and 10. They found no interactions between pattern of linguistic features and group membership.…”

Lexical Ambiguity in Algebra, Method of Instruction as Determinant of Grade 9 Students’ Academic Performance in East London District

“…Again, language difficulty can be referred to as language complexity and in the context of this study it is equally referred to as lexical ambiguity. In the past few decades, empirical studies have shown the relationship between some linguistic features and the difficulty of algebraic word problem for ELLs and non-ELLs in elementary, middle and high school (Abedi et al, 2005;Shaftel, Belton-Kocher, Glasnapp, & Poggio, 2006). Even though, many of these studies predicted a relationship between linguistic complexity and ELLs performance in mathematics word problems, the effect of specific linguistic features varied from test to test and from one grade to another.…”