CONSTRUCTION AND STANDARDIZATION OF AN ACHIEVEMENT TEST FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS OF ELEMENTARY LEVEL STUDENTS

Abstract

The proposed study will develop, build, and standardise a valid and reliable Achievement Test in English Language Skills among elementary level students. In accordance with the importance of English proficiency in the development of literacy, the research is conducted with systematic test-development process encompassing planning, preparation of successive drafts, pilot testing, item analysis and standardization. The first draft of the questionnaires consisted of 76 items ready in four abilities, i.e., listening, speaking, reading and writing, and filtered with the help of the professionals into a second draft of 55 items. A sample of 200 students took this draft and item analysis was done on the basis of upper and lower 27% groups on the basis of Difficulty Value (DV) and Discriminating Power (DP). Following the application of DV and DP, 10 unworthy items were eliminated leaving an English Language Skills Test (ELST) of 45 items. To determine the reliability, the test-retest method was used on another sample of 100 students and the correlation coefficient was 0.87, which indicated that it is very stable. The resulting tool gives a psychometrically reliable measure of English language skill to the teacher and researchers and offers a means of conducting pedagogical improvement at the elementary level.