Article published in:
The Language Testing Cycle: From inception to washback
Edited by Gillian Wigglesworth and Catherine Elder
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics. Series S 13] 1996
► pp. 137–187

Rasch scaling

How valid is it as the basis for content-referenced descriptors of test performance?

| Australian Council for Educational Research
This paper describes a methodology for exploring the validity of the Rasch scaling procedure in relation to a multiple-choice test of reading Chinese as a foreign language. The validation procedure involved a post hoc content analysis of test items to identify factors which the research literature on early reading indicated were likely to be related to item difficulty. A comparison was then made between these difficulty factors and the item-difficulty ranking produced by a Rasch analysis of test items. The analysis revealed that the dimension mapped out by the Rasch scaling (and to some extent the corresponding wording of the reporting descriptors) does indeed reflect certain elements thought to be related to early reading ability.
Published online: 01 January 1996
https://doi.org/10.1075/aralss.13.07mcq
References
Alderson, J.C. and Y. Lukmani
(1989) Cognition and reading: Cognitive levels as embodied in test questions. Reading in a Foreign Language 5,2: 253–270.Google Scholar
Alderson, J.C. and A.H. Urquhart
(1984) Reading in a Foreign Language . London, Longman.Google Scholar
Allen, E.D. and R.M. Vallette
(1972) Modern Language Classroom Techniques: a Handbook. New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Anderson R. and P. Freebody
(1981) Vocabulary knowledge. In J.T. Guthrie (ed.) Comprehension and Teaching: Research Reviews. 77–117. Delaware, IRA.Google Scholar
Australian Council for Educational Research
(1989) Basic Skills Testing Program: Technical Report. Melbourne, ACER.Google Scholar
(1990) Report on the Australian Language Certificates to the Australian Bicentennial Multicultural Foundation. Melbourne, ACER.Google Scholar
Bachman, L.F.
(1990) Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing. Oxford, OUP.Google Scholar
Ballas, M.
(1987) National assessment broadens mission to provide answers for parents, educators, policymakers. ETS Developments 32,4: 5–7.Google Scholar
Blum, S. and E. A. Levenston
(1978) Universals in lexical simplification. Language Learning 281:399–416. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chall, J.S.
(1987) Two vocabularies for reading: recognition and meaning. In M.G. McKeown and M.E. Curtis (eds) The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition. Hillsdale, N.J., Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates.Google Scholar
Chang, P. A. Mackerras and H-C Yu
(1990) Hanyu 1: Chinese for Beginners. Melbourne, Longman.Google Scholar
Cziko, G.A.
(1980) Language competence and reading strategies: a comparison of first- and second-language strategies. Language Learning 30,1: 100–116. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dale, E. and J.S. Chall
(1948) A formula for predicting readability. Educational Research Bulletin. 271: 11–28.Google Scholar
Davis, F.
(1944) Fundamental factors of comprehension in reading. Psychometrika 9,3: 185–197. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dollerup, C. E. Glahn and C.R. Hansen
(1989) Vocabularies in the reading process. In P. Nation and R. Carter (eds) Vocabulary Acquisition. Amsterdam, AILA.Google Scholar
Dubin, F.
(1989) The odd couple: reading and vocabulary. English Language Teaching Journal 43,4: 283–287. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Elder, C. and S. Zammit
(1992) Assessing performance in languages other than English: the contribution of the Australian Language Certificates. Vox. 61: 14–20.Google Scholar
Everson, M. F.
(1988) Speed and comprehension in reading Chinese romanization vs characters revisited. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers’ Association 23,2: 1–15.Google Scholar
Flesch, R.F.
(1948) A new readability yardstick. Journal of Applied Psychology. 32:3 221–233. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Freebody, P. and R Anderson
(1983) Effects of vocabulary difficulty, text-cohesion and schema availability on reading comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly 18,3: 277–294. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fry, E.
(1968) A readability formula that saves time. Journal of Reading 111:513–516.Google Scholar
Gibson, E.J. and H. Levin
(1975) The Psychology of Reading. Cambridge, Mass, The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Goodman, K.S.
(1976) Reading: a psycholinguistic guessing game. In H. Singer and R. Ruddell (eds) Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading. Newark, DE, International Reading Association.Google Scholar
Hague S.A.
(1987) Vocabulary instruction: what L2 can learn from L1. Foreign Language Annals 20,3: 217–225. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K., A. Mcintosh and P. Strevens
(1964) The linguistic science and language teaching. London, LongmanGoogle Scholar
Hatch E.
(1983) Psycholinguistics: a Second Language Perspective. Rowley, Mass, Newbury House.Google Scholar
Hatch, E.
(1974) Research on reading in a Second Language. Journal of Reading Behaviour 6,1: 53–61. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, E.B.
(1987) The Relationship between Chinese character complexity and character recognition. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers’ Association 22,2: 45–72.Google Scholar
Henning, G.H.
(1973) Remembering foreign language vocabulary: acoustic and semantic parameters. Language Learning 231: 185–196. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Higa, M.
(1965)The psycholinguistic concept of ‘difficulty’ and the teaching of foreign language vocabulary. Language Learning 15,3&4: 167–179. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Huckin, R., M. Haynes and J. Coady
(eds) (1993) Second Language Rreading and Vocabulary Learning. Elwood NJ, AblexGoogle Scholar
Juel, C.
(1983) The development and use of mediated word identification. Reading Research Quarterly 18,3: 306–327. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Koda, K.
(1994) Second language reading research: Problems and possibilities. Applied Psycholinguistics 151: 1–28. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
LaBerge, D. and S.J. Samuels
(1974) Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology 6,2: 293–323. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Laroche J.M.
(1979) Readability measurement for foreign language materials. System 7,2: 131–5. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Laufer, B.
(1989) A factor of difficulty in vocabulary learning: deceptive transparency. In Nation, P. and R. Carter (eds) Vocabulary Acquisition. AILA Review 6: 10–20. Amsterdam, AILA.Google Scholar
(1990) Why are some words more difficult than others? Some intralexical factors that affect the learning of words. IRAL 28,4: 293–307. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ludwig, J.
(1984) Vocabulary acquisition as a function of word characteristics. The Canadian Modern Language Review 401: 552–562. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lumley, T.J.N.
(1993) Reading comprehension sub-skills: teacher perceptions of content in an EAP test. Melbourne Papers in Applied Linguistics 2,1: 25–55.Google Scholar
McKeown, M.G. and M.E. Curtis
(1987) The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
McNamara, T.F.
(1990) Assessing the Second Language Proficiency of Health Professionals. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B.
(1995) Language-specific prediction in foreign language learning. Language Testing 12,3: 293–320. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Meara, P.
(compiler and ed.) (1983) Vocabulary in a Second Language, Volume 11. London: CILT.Google Scholar
(compiler and ed.) (1987) Vocabulary in a Second Language, Volume 21. London, CILT.Google Scholar
(compiler and ed.) (1993) Vocabulary in a Second Language, Volume 3. Reading in Second Language 9,1: 761–837.Google Scholar
Mossensen, L., P. Hill and G. Masters
(1987) Test of Reading Comprehension (TORCH) Melbourne, Australian Council for Educational Research.Google Scholar
Mullis, I.V.S. and L.B. Jenkins
(1988) The Science Report Card: Elements of Risk and Recovery. Princeton, N.J., Educational Testing Service.Google Scholar
Nation, I.S.P.
(1990) Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. NY, Newbury House.Google Scholar
Palmberg, R.
(1987a) On lexical inferencing and the young foreign language learner. System 15,1 69–76. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1987b) Patterns of vocabulary development in foreign language learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 9,2: 201–219. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pavlidis M.
(1990) Reading Strategies of Second-Language Learners of Chinese. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
Pino-Silva, J.
(1993) Untutored vocabulary acquisition and L2 reading ability. Reading in a Foreign Language 9,2: 845–857.Google Scholar
Raugh, M.R. and R Atkinson
(1975) A mnemonic method for learning second language vocabulary. Journal of Educational Psychology 67:1 16. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Read, J.
(1988) Measuring the vocabulary knowledge of second language learners. RELC Journal 19,2: 12–25. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Richards, J
(1974) Word lists: problems and prospects. RELC Journal 5,2: 69–84. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rumelhart, D.E.
(1977) Towards an interactive model of reading. In S. Dornic (ed.) Attention and Performance VI. Hillsdale, N.J., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
(1980) Schemata: the building blocks of cognition. In R.J. Spiro, B Bruce and W.E. Brewer (eds) Theoretical Issues in Reading Comprehension, 33–58. Hillsdale, NJ., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Schneider, W. and R.M. Shiffrin
(1977) Controlled and automatic human information processing I: detection, search and attention. Psychological Review 84,1: 1–66. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Shiffrin R.M. and W. Schneider
(1977) Controlled and automatic human information processing II: Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory. Psychological Review 84,2: 127–190. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stanovich K.E.
(1980) Towards an interactive-compensatory model of individual differences in the development of reading fluency. Reading Research Quarterly 16,1: 32–71. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tinkham, T.
(1993) The effect of semantic clustering on the learning of second language vocabulary. System 21,3: 371–380. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Williams, E. and C. Moran
(1989) Reading in a foreign language at intermediate and advanced levels with particular reference to English. Language Teaching 23,2 : 217–228. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wood, R.
(1991) Assessment and Testing: A Survey of Research Commissioned by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, B.D., R.T. Congdon and M. Rossner
(1987) MSCALE, Version 2.4. University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Yunjiu, Luo, Wei Wei & Ying Zheng
2022. Artificial Intelligence-Generated and Human Expert-Designed Vocabulary Tests: A Comparative Study. SAGE Open 12:1 ► pp. 215824402210821 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 03 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.