Exploring the Alignment Between a Curriculum and a Test for Young Learners of English as a Foreign Language - Research Memorandum ETS RM-20-08

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Connor

The study examines the appropriateness of using the TOEFL Primary tests to evaluate EFL language abilities of students learning through the online-delivered VIPKid Major Course (MC). It uses student test scores from TOEFL Primary Listening and Reading tests and expert judgments about alignment between test content and learning activities in VIPKid MC Levels 3–7. Results indicate generally appropriate difficulty, increasing proficiency across MC levels, and largely aligned content. The discussion addresses implications for EFL testing of young learners and for TOEFL Primary use within VIPKid MC.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages39

Reading Time1 h 38 min

AccessFree to download

Context of the Study

VIPKid Major Course

The TOEFL Primary Tests

Research Questions

Methodology

Collection of Students’ Test Score Data

Research Memorandum ETS RM–20-08 Exploring the Alignment Between a Curriculum and a Test for Young Learners of English as a Foreign Language Spiros Papageorgiou Xiaoqiu Xu Veronika Timpe-Laughlin Deborah M. Dugdale November 2020 ETS Research Memorandum Series EIGNOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR John Mazzeo Distinguished Presidential Appointee ASSOCIATE EDITORS Beata Beigman Klebanov Senior Research Scientist Heather Buzick Senior Research Scientist Tim Davey Research Director John Davis Research Scientist Marna Golub-Smith Principal Psychometrician Priya Kannan Managing Research Scientist Sooyeon Kim Principal Psychometrician Anastassia Loukina Senior Research Scientist Gautam Puhan Psychometric Director Jonathan Schmidgall Research Scientist Jesse Sparks Research Scientist Michael Walker Distinguished Presidential Appointee Rebecca Zwick Distinguished Presidential Appointee PRODUCTION EDITORS Kim Fryer Manager, Editing Services Ayleen Gontz Senior Editor Since its 1947 founding, ETS has conducted and disseminated scientific research to support its products and services, and to advance the measurement and education fields. In keeping with these goals, ETS is committed to making its research freely available to the professional community and to the general public. Published accounts of ETS research, including papers in the ETS Research Memorandum series, undergo a formal peer-review process by ETS staff to ensure that they meet established scientific and professional standards. All such ETS-conducted peer reviews are in addition to any reviews that outside organizations may provide as part of their own publication processes. Peer review notwithstanding, the positions expressed in the ETS Research Memorandum series and other published accounts of ETS research are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Officers and Trustees of Educational Testing Service. The Daniel Eignor Editorship is named in honor of Dr. Daniel R. Eignor, who from 2001 until 2011 served the Research and Development division as Editor for the ETS Research Report series. The Eignor Editorship has been created to recognize the pivotal leadership role that Dr. Eignor played in the research publication process at ETS. Exploring the Alignment Between a Curriculum and a Test for Young Learners of English as a Foreign Language Spiros Papageorgiou1, Xiaoqiu Xu2, Veronika Timpe-Laughlin1, and Deborah M. Dugdale2 1 Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey, United States 2VIPKid, Beijing, China November 2020 Corresponding author: S. Papageorgiou, E-mail: spapageorgiou@ets.org Suggested citation: Papageorgiou, S., Xu, X., Timpe-Laughlin, V., & Dugdale, D. M. (2020) . Exploring the alignment between a curriculum and a test for young learners of English as a foreign language (Research Memorandum No. RM-20-08) . Educational Testing Service. Find other ETS-published reports by searching the ETS ReSEARCHER database at [https://search.ets.org/researcher/](https://search.ets.org/researcher/) To obtain a copy of an ETS research report, please visit [https://ets.org/research/contact/](https://ets.org/research/contact/) Action Editor: John Norris Reviewers: Ching-Ni Hsieh and Mikyung Wolf Copyright © 2020 by Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. ETS, the ETS logo, TOEFL, TOEFL JUNIOR, and TOEFL PRIMARY are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service (ETS) . All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the appropriateness of using the TOEFL Primary® tests to evaluate the language abilities of students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) through an online-delivered curriculum, the VIPKid Major Course (MC) . Data include student test scores on the TOEFL Primary Listening and Reading tests and expert judgments on the degree of alignment between the content of the tests and

FAQs

What is the main purpose of the study?

To examine whether TOEFL Primary tests are appropriate for evaluating English as a foreign language (EFL) abilities of young learners using the VIPKid Major Course curriculum.

What data sources support the analysis?

The study uses TOEFL Primary Listening and Reading student test scores plus expert judgments on the degree of alignment between test content and VIPKid MC learning activities.

What did the results show about alignment and proficiency?

The TOEFL Primary Reading and Listening tests were generally at an appropriate difficulty level for MC students, showed increased proficiency across MC levels, and had content largely aligned with the MC learning activities.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Connor