Examining The Validity Of Using A Bilingual Test To Assess Form Two Students’ Achievement In Mathematics

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dc.contributor.authorSuppiah Shanmugam, S.Kanageswari
dc.date.accessioned2018-06-26T07:40:36Z
dc.date.available2018-06-26T07:40:36Z
dc.date.issued2010-12
dc.description.abstractThe aim of this study is to compare the construct equivalence of the English-only test and the bilingual test by using dimensionality and differential item functioning methods. In addition, this study also examines the differences in the mathematical achievement between the limited English proficiency students’ (LEP) and the non-LEP students in both tests for computation and word-problem testlets. By using spiral administration, all the LEP students in the six classes that had been selected sat for the tests simultaneously. The English teachers used their expert judgment to make the LEP and the non-LEP classification for their own students. The findings revealed that the two tests are equivalent at the item level and test level even though there are DIF items. DIF analyses conducted between the two tests based on the Classical Test Theory, the Item Response Theory and the Multidimensional Model detected one common DIF item which is a word problem item that favours the students who answered in the bilingual test. No DIF items were detected between the LEP and non-LEP students for the bilingual test. The findings revealed that that the LEP students’ mathematical achievement is higher (mean=17.97) in the bilingual test when compared to the English-only test (mean=17.59). For the computation testlet, they performed equally for both tests (mean=10.15) while for the word problem testlet, LEP students did better in the bilingual test (mean=7.82) when compared to the English-only test (mean=7.44). The results suggest that the bilingual test even though generally helped the LEP students, it did not render much help to the LEP students who had received their primary education in the Chinese-type schools as the language of instruction did not match the language of assessment. However, the bilingual test served the purpose of a ‘comprehension check’ for all the students. Another interesting finding is that the LEP students still preferred the English-only test since the language of instruction matched the language of assessment. As such, simplifying the structure of the English language may be more promising than the bilingual test.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/5789
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversiti Sains Malaysiaen_US
dc.subjectThe differences in the mathematical achievementen_US
dc.subjectbetween the limited English proficiency studentsen_US
dc.titleExamining The Validity Of Using A Bilingual Test To Assess Form Two Students’ Achievement In Mathematicsen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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