The Validity Argument of a Web-Based Spanish Listening Exam: Test Usefulness Evaluation

Abstract

This study describes research used for supporting a validity argument for a new Spanish Listening Exam, whose scores are intended to place examinees into appropriate levels of university Spanish classes. This study contributes to the field of argument-based approaches to language assessment by implementing Bachman's (2005) assessment use argument framework. The validity argument is supported by research providing backing for three warrants pertaining to the quality of inference that can be made on the basis of examinees' performance. These warrants, based on three qualities of test usefulness (Bachman & Palmer, 1996), guided test development and research toward a placement test with the purpose of grouping students according to their levels of language ability within the framework of the communicative approach for learning Spanish.

Notes

¹See the appendix for similar tasks for the SLE.

²Most of the results from the posttest survey are linked to the utilization argument and therefore not discussed in this article. A forthcoming paper based on the utilization argument will be explored in terms of (a) the SLE tasks' relevance to the language instruction domain for interpreting test scores and deciding student's placement, (b) score utility and test takers' perceptions about the difficulty of the tasks for the applied purpose, (c) the intended consequences interpreting scores and using them for placement decisions, and (d) the sufficiency for students' placement based on listening comprehension.

³Sentences have not been reworded for proper grammar and spelling.