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The report explains how the English Language Institute administers the test to all incoming undergraduates and postgraduates to identify students needing language support and reduce academic difficulties. It analyzes administrative and logistic constraints on test content and scoring, and examines methodological extensions such as pooled judgements, parallel forms, statistical analyses, and student face-validity 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describes a reliability and validity study of the placement test whichis used at the University of Surrey as a means of identifying students who mayrequire English language support whilst studying at undergraduate or postgraduatelevels.The English Language Institute is charged with testing all incoming stu-dents,irrespective of their primary language or subject specialization.Pair andaccurate assessment of student abilities,and referring individuals to appropriatelanguage support courses(the in-sessional programme),is an essential supportservice to all academic departments.The goal of placement testing is to reduceto an absolute minimum the number of students who may face problems or evenfail their academic degrees because of poor language ability or study skills.Thisstudy looks at the administrative and logistic constraints upon what can be done,and assesses the usefulness of the placement test developed within this context.  \n## I Introduction\n\nIt has recently been noted that although placement testing is probablyone of the most widespread uses of tests within institutions,there isrelatively little research literature relating to the reliability and val-idity of such measures(Wall,Clapham and Alderson,1994).Publi-cations which deal with placement tests frequently provide qualitativeassessments of instruments(Goodbody,1993),or are concerned withthe placement of linguistic minority students in programmes whichare not related to language teaching(Schmitz and DelMas,1990;Tru-man,1992).Wall,Clapham and Alderson(1994)offer one of thefew empirical studies of a placement test which is designed to screenstudents entering a British university for deficiencies in English lang-uage skills,which might impede their progress in undergraduate orpostgraduate studies.They investigate face validity(student percep-tions of the test),content validity(asking whether tutors thought thattest content represented programme content),construct validity(through a correlational study),concurrent validity(with self-assess-ment,and the assessment of tutors)and reliability.The main problemthey discovered in attempting to validate the University of Lancasterplacement test was in finding appropriate external criteria to conducta concurrent study.  \nLanguage Testing 199714(2)113-138  \n## 114 An English language placement test\n\nThe methodology used to ascertain the reliability and validity ofthe test in this study is similar to that of the Lancaster study in manyways,and is described in detail below.However,this study doesattempt to exand on their methodology for the evaluation of place-ment tests within a university context in four areas.These are:  \n● the use of pooled judgements in establishing cut scores for place-ment;  \n● the use of additional statistical means to analyse test data;  \n·the consideration of the need to develop parallel forms;and  \n·the use of student questionnaires to investigate face validity.  \nII Background  \nThe English Language Institute(ELI)has a number of roles withinthe University of Surrey,ranging from its support function in provid-ing English language and study skills courses for students at the uni-versity,English for Academic Purposes(EAP)for overseas studentswho intend to study in an English-medium tertiary institution,and anMA in linguistics(TESOL)for teachers of English,in distance-learn-ing mode.As part of its service function related to the in-sessionalprogramme,the ELI is charged by the university to administer anEnglish language test to all students entering the university on taughtcourses(undergraduate and postgraduate,English as primary langu-age speakers,and speakers of other languages).The purpose of thetest is to identify students whose lack of language skills or abilityto communicate may cause problems in their academic work with    their departments.  \nA major constra","cbCairM3XpUGX8zS","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCairM3XpUGX8zS","pdf",2122201,27,"English","# I Introduction\n# II Background\n# II Test design\n## 1 Test format","[{\"question\":\"What is the purpose of the University of Surrey placement test?\",\"answer\":\"It identifies students who may require English language support during undergraduate or postgraduate study, aiming to reduce problems or failures caused by language ability or study skills.\"},{\"question\":\"Why are there limits on the length and content of the test?\",\"answer\":\"Testing must be completed within one hour per administration, scripts must be processed within five days, and available markers require much of the paper to be objectively scored.\"},{\"question\":\"Which research areas does this study expand to evaluate placement tests?\",\"answer\":\"It extends methodology in four areas: pooled judgements for cut scores, additional statistical means for analyzing data, development of parallel forms, and use of student questionnaires to investigate face validity.\"}]","An English language placement test - issues in reliability and validity | PDF",1790907686,68]