ERIC Number: EJ1272921
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Oct
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0265-5322
EISSN: N/A
Understanding Writing Quality Change: A Longitudinal Study of Repeaters of a High-Stakes Standardized English Proficiency Test
Language Testing, v37 n4 p523-549 Oct 2020
This study examined the writing score and writing feature changes of 562 repeat test takers who took the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program--General (CELPIP--General) test at least three times, with a short (30-40 day) interval between the first and second attempts and a longer (90-180 day) interval between the first and third attempts. Analysis was conducted to uncover whether changes occurred at different testing durations (short vs. long) and whether the observed changes varied across repeater's initial proficiency groups (low, mid, high). The writing scores measured by CELPIP bands showed great stability over the 6-month period, but the trends of development differed by proficiency group. Low proficiency test takers were more likely to have faster observable score gains, compared to the medium proficiency group, whereas high proficiency repeaters may not maintain their score levels at later attempts. Writing quality was analyzed using natural language processing (NLP) tools. Results suggested that for all proficiency groups, lexical features were more likely to improve over the 6-month period, with some measures showing improvement at 1 month; features in cohesion and syntactic sophistication, however, did not change significantly.
Descriptors: Language Tests, Standardized Tests, Language Proficiency, Writing Tests, English (Second Language), Foreign Countries, Repetition, Scores, Change, Time
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A