Developing a Multimedia, Computer-based Spanish Placement Test

Authors

  • Francisco Zabaleta

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v24i3.675-692

Keywords:

Spanish Placement Test, Computer-based Testing, Item Discrimination (ID), Item Facility (IF), Validity, Reliability, Audiovisual Test Items, Test-authoring Software

Abstract

Placing students of a foreign language within a basic language program constitutes an ongoing problem, particularly for large university departments when they have many incoming freshmen and transfer students. This article outlines the author's experience designing and piloting a language placement test for a university level Spanish program. The paper offers rationale for the project as well as step-by-step instructions and commentary on how to build such a test. The aim of the project was twofold. First, the design and implementation of the test was meant to address a need of a large Spanish language program by offering a fast, reliable, and easy-to-administer Spanish placement test. Second, the use of multimedia-based test items was intended to improve and facilitate comprehensible input by test takers. Analysis of the data indicates that multimedia-based items show marginal improvement in item facility (IF) coefficients over text-only items.

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Published

2013-01-14

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Section

Articles

How to Cite

Zabaleta, F. (2013). Developing a Multimedia, Computer-based Spanish Placement Test. CALICO Journal, 24(3), 675-692. https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v24i3.675-692

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