Examining the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among grade six pupils

Purpose - This study examined the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among Grade Six pupils. Method - Contrary to the conventional approach of relying only on statistics when investigating item quality, this study adopted a mixed-method approach by...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Shanmugam, S. Kanageswari Suppiah, Wong, Vincent, Rajoo, Murugan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Utara Malaysia Press 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/28918/1/MJLI%2017%2002%202020%2063-101.pdf
https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/28918/
https://doi.org/10.32890/mjli2020.17.2.3
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia
Language: English
id my.uum.repo.28918
record_format eprints
spelling my.uum.repo.289182022-10-06T00:51:28Z https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/28918/ Examining the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among grade six pupils Shanmugam, S. Kanageswari Suppiah Wong, Vincent Rajoo, Murugan LB1501 Primary Education Purpose - This study examined the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among Grade Six pupils. Method - Contrary to the conventional approach of relying only on statistics when investigating item quality, this study adopted a mixed-method approach by employing psychometric analysis and cognitive interviews. The former was conducted on 30 Grade Six pupils, with each item representing a different construct commonly found in English test papers. Qualitative input was obtained through cognitive interviews with five Grade Six pupils and expert judgements from three teachers. Findings - None of the items were found to be too easy or difficult, and all items had positive discrimination indices. The item on idioms was most ideal in terms of difficulty and discrimination. Difficult items were found to be vocabulary-based. Surprisingly, the higher-order-thinking subjective items proved to be excellent in difficulty, although improvements could be made on their ability to discriminate. The qualitative expert judgements agreed with the quantitative psychometric analysis. Certain results from the item analysis, however, contradicted past findings that items with the ideal item difficulty value between 0.4 and 0.6 would have equally ideal item discrimination index. Significance -The findings of the study can serve as a reminder on the significance of using Classical Test Theory, a non-complex psychometric approach in assisting classroom teacher practitioners during the meticulous process of test design and ensuring test item quality. Universiti Utara Malaysia Press 2020 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/28918/1/MJLI%2017%2002%202020%2063-101.pdf Shanmugam, S. Kanageswari Suppiah and Wong, Vincent and Rajoo, Murugan (2020) Examining the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among grade six pupils. Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction (MJLI), 17 (2). pp. 63-101. ISSN 1675-8110 https://doi.org/10.32890/mjli2020.17.2.3
institution Universiti Utara Malaysia
building UUM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Utara Malaysia
content_source UUM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://repo.uum.edu.my/
language English
topic LB1501 Primary Education
spellingShingle LB1501 Primary Education
Shanmugam, S. Kanageswari Suppiah
Wong, Vincent
Rajoo, Murugan
Examining the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among grade six pupils
description Purpose - This study examined the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among Grade Six pupils. Method - Contrary to the conventional approach of relying only on statistics when investigating item quality, this study adopted a mixed-method approach by employing psychometric analysis and cognitive interviews. The former was conducted on 30 Grade Six pupils, with each item representing a different construct commonly found in English test papers. Qualitative input was obtained through cognitive interviews with five Grade Six pupils and expert judgements from three teachers. Findings - None of the items were found to be too easy or difficult, and all items had positive discrimination indices. The item on idioms was most ideal in terms of difficulty and discrimination. Difficult items were found to be vocabulary-based. Surprisingly, the higher-order-thinking subjective items proved to be excellent in difficulty, although improvements could be made on their ability to discriminate. The qualitative expert judgements agreed with the quantitative psychometric analysis. Certain results from the item analysis, however, contradicted past findings that items with the ideal item difficulty value between 0.4 and 0.6 would have equally ideal item discrimination index. Significance -The findings of the study can serve as a reminder on the significance of using Classical Test Theory, a non-complex psychometric approach in assisting classroom teacher practitioners during the meticulous process of test design and ensuring test item quality.
format Article
author Shanmugam, S. Kanageswari Suppiah
Wong, Vincent
Rajoo, Murugan
author_facet Shanmugam, S. Kanageswari Suppiah
Wong, Vincent
Rajoo, Murugan
author_sort Shanmugam, S. Kanageswari Suppiah
title Examining the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among grade six pupils
title_short Examining the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among grade six pupils
title_full Examining the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among grade six pupils
title_fullStr Examining the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among grade six pupils
title_full_unstemmed Examining the quality of English test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among grade six pupils
title_sort examining the quality of english test items using psychometric and linguistic characteristics among grade six pupils
publisher Universiti Utara Malaysia Press
publishDate 2020
url https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/28918/1/MJLI%2017%2002%202020%2063-101.pdf
https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/28918/
https://doi.org/10.32890/mjli2020.17.2.3
_version_ 1746212602315276288