The construction and validation of an entrance test in English for incoming freshman students of JRU

• Main Author: Fuentes, Guia Z.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2004
• Subjects: Universities and colleges > Entrance examinations; Jose Rizal University > Entrance examinations; Educational Administration and Supervision; English Language and Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/3255; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_masteral/article/10093/viewcontent/CDTG003852_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The study aimed to construct and validate an English entrance test for the incoming freshman students of Jose Rizal University. The researcher attempted to identify the English language skills that need to be developed among the students of Jose Rizal University based on a diagnostic test, a survey, and an interview with its faculty members. Moreover, she validated the test in terms of its face validity, content validity, construct validity, and predictive validity. Finally, she established the reliability of the test. A diagnostic test was conducted to determine the students weaknesses and strengths. It was revealed that skills in grammar and reading comprehension be strengthened. Such grammar skills that need to be developed are pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, verb forms, and the use of subject and predicate. For reading comprehension, teachers need to develop the literal and inferential comprehension skills of their students such as noting details, making inferences, getting the main idea, and vocabulary development through context clues. A cloze test was provided to develop other skills like predicting outcomes and drawing conclusions. A total of one hundred forty five items (145) in the trial run were constructed based on the results of the diagnostic test and the pilot test. As a result of the item analysis done, a total of one hundred five (105) items were refined for the final run. Most items considered too easy or very difficult were deleted although some had to be retained in order to have a proportional and balanced difficulty level (Ebel, 1965). Students scores were correlated with their grades in fourth year high school English using the Pearson Product-Moment formula in order to determine the predictive validity of the test. Findings revealed that the test had a moderate relationship with a correlation coefficient(r) of 0.64 for the trial run and a high relationship for the final run with an r of 0.76. The reliability of the test showing the internal consistency was computed using the Kuder Richardson 20 formula. A very high relationship existed as indicated by r = 0.94 for the trial run and r = 0.92 for the final run. The test is a valid and reliable instrument for college admission. It is highly recommended for incoming students of JRU. A prompt for essay writing should be included in the final form of the test in order to diagnose further the students strengths and weaknesses in grammar and composition writing. Furthermore, researchers are encouraged to construct and validate instruments in other areas like science and mathematics where English is used.