Thesis (MA--Applied Language Studies)--AUT University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (ix, 112 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 428.0076 BAI)

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the effect of the writing prompt on test takers in terms of their test taking processes and the final written product in a second language writing assessment context. The study employs a mixed methods approach, with a quantitative and a qualitative strand. The quantitative study focuses on an analysis of the responses to six different writing prompts, with the responses being analyzed for significant differences in a range of key textual features, such as syntactic complexity, lexical sophistication, fluency and cohesion. The qualitative study incorporates stimulated recall interviews with test takers to learn about the aspects of the writing prompt that can have an effect on test taking processes, such as selecting a prompt, planning a response, and composing a response. The results of the quantitative study indicate that characteristics of the writing prompt (domain, response mode, focus, number of rhetorical cues) have an effect on numerous textual features of the response; for example, fluency, syntactic complexity, lexical sophistication, and cohesion. The qualitative results indicate that similar characteristics of the writing prompt can have an effect on how test takers select a prompt, and that the test time constraint interacts with the prompt characteristics to affect how test takers plan and compose their responses. The topic and the number of rhetorical cues are the prompt characteristics that have the greatest effect on test taking processes. The main conclusion drawn from the study findings are that several prompt characteristics should be controlled if prompts are to be considered equivalent. Without controlling certain prompt characteristics, both test taking processes and the written product will vary as a result of the prompt. The findings raise some serious questions regarding the inferences that may legitimately be drawn from writing scores. The findings provide clear guidance on prompt characteristics that should be controlled to help ensure that prompts present an equivalent challenge and opportunity to test takers to demonstrate their writing proficiency. This thesis makes an original contribution to the second language writing assessment literature in the detailed understanding of the relationships between specific prompt characteristics and textual features of the response.

Validation in language testing is an ongoing process in which information is collected through investigations into the design, implementation, products and impacts of an assessment (Sireci, 2007). This includes the cognitive processes elicited from candidates by a test (Weir, 2005). This study investigated the English Speaking Board’s ESOL International examinations at levels B2 and C1 of the CEFR. The study considered the role of discourse competence in successful performances through examination of cognitive phases employed by candidates and metadiscourse markers and whether the use fit with models such as the CEFR and Field (2004) and so contributed to the validation argument. The study had two strands. The process strand of the study was largely qualitative and focussed on the cognitive processes which candidates used to compose their texts. Verbal reports were carried out with a total of twelve participants, six at each level. The product strand of the study analysed the use of metadiscourse markers in the scripts of sixty candidates in order to identify developing features of discourse competence at levels B2 and C1. The process strand of the study identified that there were statistically significant differences in the cognitive phases employed by the participants in the study. The investigation also identified a number of differences in what B2 and C1 learners attended to while carrying out the different phases. The product strand of the study found no statistically significant differences in the use of metadiscourse markers used by candidates at the two levels, but observed differences in the way particular metadiscourse markers were employed. These differences indicate the direction for a possible larger-scale study. Unlike previous studies into metadiscourse (Burneikaite, 2008; Plakans, 2009; Bax, Nataksuhara & Waller, forthcoming) the study controlled for task, text type and rhetorical pattern and nationality. The study suggested that discourse competence contributed to higher-level performances in writing and that the examinations under investigation elicited a wide range of cognitive phases from C1 candidates. The study also suggested that many of the CEFR’s statements about the development of discourse competence at the higher levels are correct.

<p>The theory underlying L2 oral fluency has focused on cognitive processes, particularly proceduralization (Anderson, 1983; Levelt, 1989, 1999) and linguistic constructs, especially vocabulary and grammar (Segalowitz, 2010). Towell, Hawkins, and Bazergui (1996) argued that development of formulaic language enables automatic speech production. However, no research has studied the longitudinal development of L2 oral fluency concurrently with any of the following lexical variables: lexical frequency profile, formulaic language use, and MTLD (a measure of lexical diversity). The purpose of the present study is to clarify the process by which L2 oral fluency, syntax, and vocabulary develop concurrently.</p> <p>Data analysis involved three sequential phases: oral fluency analysis, lexico-syntactic analysis, and discourse analysis. Oral fluency measures were calculated using the transcribed oral test responses of 100 L1-Chinese EAP learners at the beginning and end of a required two-course EAP language and culture sequence at Purdue University. The task completed was a computer-administered, two-minute argumentative speaking task. This study included eight oral fluency measures: speech rate, mean length of speech run, articulation rate, phonation time ratio, mean length of silent pause, mean length of filled pause, silent pause frequency, and filled pause frequency. For the ten participants who made the largest percentage-wise oral fluency gains (in terms of the oral fluency variable associated with the largest effect size of gains), oral transcripts were analyzed to compute descriptive statistics for the three lexical variables mentioned above and three syntactic variables: coordinate clause ratio, dependent clause ratio, and words per T-unit. </p> Results indicated significant change in all oral fluency measures, except mean length of silent pause and mean length of filled pause. The largest gains were made in mean length of speech run. Of the linguistic variables, the largest longitudinal change was associated with coordinate clause ratio. Discourse analysis of the transcripts of large fluency gainers' pre-post responses suggested that large fluency gainers used coordinate clauses to build more sophisticated discourse models in the post-test response than they did in the pre-test response. Implications for L2 oral fluency theory, EAP pedagogy, and L2 oral assessment are discussed.

The present study was designed to determine the ages at which a sample of children between eighteen and forty-two months verbally and correctly express the fourteen prepositions known to be acquired by age four, using the Revised Expressive Preposition Test (REPT). The REPT was administered to sixty children chosen from day care centers and private homes within the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon. Therewas no preference as to the sex, intelligence of the child or socio- economic status of the child's family. A statistical analysis was performed to determine the correlation between HEPT scores and the child's chronological age, mental age and the socioeconomic status of the child's family. Results show that expressive prepositions tend to be acquired at different age levels. Each age group tended to use a progressively greater number of the prepositions. None of the eighteen month olds used any of the prepositions. Only one-fourth of the twenty-four month olds used any of the prepositions. Half or more of the thirty month olds expressed the prepositions "under," "on," "in" and "up." Half or more of the thirty-six month olds expressed the prepositions "out of," "at," "in" and "up," but not "under" and "on." Half or more of the forty-two month olds expressed the prepositions "to, II, "out of," "under," "around," "at," "of," "with" and "up." One hundred per cent of the forty-two month olds also used the prepositions "in" and "on." The prepositions which were never expressed by 50 per cent of any of the children were "behind," "across," "off" and "by." A statistical analysis of the data revealed a moderate correlation between the children's REPT scores and their chronological ages (.68). Correlation coefficients indicated a high correlation between the children's REFT scores and their combined chronological and mental ages (.82). The children's SES scores did not correlate with REPT scores (1 per cent) when considered together with chronological and mental ages.

The purpose of this study was to compare the visual-motor integrative abilities of preschool children with their articulatory and syntactical development. Two questions were posed: Do children having accelerated visual-motor integrative skills perform at a higher level than children having delayed visual-motor integration skills in 1) their articulation proficiency, and 2) their syntactical abilities?

This study was designed to determine whether varying criterion for pass/fail on the Mini-Screening Language Test for Adolescents (Mini-STAL) would increase accuracy of predicting outcome of the Screening Test of Adolescent Language (STAL). The Mini-STAL was developed by Prather et al. (1981) to identify rapidly those students between grades six through twelve who are in need of language intervention. Using Prather's established criterion (one or more errors equal failure), the Phoenix school district (Prather, 1981) found too many of their school population (20 percent) were failing the Mini- STAL. Thus, they established an experimental criterion (two or more errors equal failure) to identify those students with language problems. The present study sought to determine what proportion of students with language disorders was not detected by the Mini-STAL and what proportion of students without language disorders failed the Mini-STAL using the two criteria.

The auxiliary verb obligatory-do is used in forming questions, negative and emphatic sentences. Currently there is no test or norms established for the acquisition of obligatory-do. The purpose of this study was to establish age trends, via elicited imitation for the acquisition of obligatory-do according to the sentence type in which it expressively occurs i.e., negative sentences, emphatic sentences, interrogative reversals and wh-questions. This study addressed the following question: At what ages do children expressively demonstrate, via elicited imitation, the auxiliary verb obligatory-do in negative sentences, emphatic sentences, interrogative reversals and wh-questions? A secondary question was: In what manner does age and MLU, mean length of utterance, of 25 utterances correlate with the acquisition of obligatory-do?

Screening has been suggested as the most efficient method to find students with potential language problems (Neidecker, 1980). Based on the need for a standardized adolescent language screening tool, Prather, Breecher, Stafford, and Wallace (1980) developed the Screening Test of Adolescent Language (STAL). This is a six to eight minute test with twenty-three items which examine vocabulary, auditory memory span, language processing, and proverb explanation. Following an item analysis of the STAL, Prather, Brenner, and Hughes (1981) derived the Mini-Screening Test of Adolescent Language (M-STAL). This test contains five items from the STAL and requires one minute to administer.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if dialectal interference as described by Walter Wolfram (Appendix B) was exhibited by black children in Portland, Oregon when given the NSST by Laura Lee. This author was concerned with syntactical interferences on the expressive portion of this test. A secondary purpose of this investigation was to provide suggested norms for differentiating children with language deficits from children with language differences. Seventy black children with normal speech and language were selected from two public schools, a Head Start Center and a day care center. These children were between the ages of 3-0 to 7-11 and had been screened to determine their race, age, socioeconomic status, and emotional stability. Screening for intelligence was performed at the beginning of the testing situation, before the expressive portion of the NSST was administered. The NSST consists of sentence repetition in response to pictures. The sentences involve grammatical contrasts of increasing difficulty, and can be administered in five to ten minutes. The results of this study did not support the prediction made by this researcher.