We describe first results obtained during the development of an automatic system for the assessment of spoken English proficiency of university students. The ultimate aim of this system is to allow fast, consistent and objective assessment of oral proficiency for the purpose of placing students in courses appropriate to their language skills. Rate of speech (ROS) was chosen as an indicator of f...

a proficiency test is one of the language tests with the goal of assessing/evaluating the language learners' achievement. this test does not deal with language teaching and learning methods. in fact, in a proficiency test, we concentrate on determining the level of the testee’s ability in applying language at the time of administrating the test and for the test taker, it is not important t...

This study utilized Structural Equation Modeling to investigate the washback mechanism, focusing on two design aspects of an English language proficiency test: component weighting (weight assigned to different test papers) and testing methods (item format), and their washback on test preparation. Two months before taking the test, a large sample of test-takers (N 1⁄4 1000) were surveyed regardi...

An overview of general strategy, standard procedures, and critical points, which may be found during carrying out an OPCW Proficiency Test concerning detection and identification of scheduled compounds relevant to Chemical Weapon Convention, has been presented. The observations have been illustrated following the case of the Eight OPCW Designated Laboratories Proficiency Test, which was perform...

the present study examined the factor structure of the university of tehran english proficiency test (utept) that aims to examine test takers’ knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. a structural equation modelling (sem) approach was used to analyse the responses of participants (n= 850) to a 2010 version of the test.  a higher-order model was postulated to test if the unde...

the present study aimed at exploring the potential relationship between language learning strategies (lls) and factors such as major fields of study, sex, and language proficiency among university students across different fields such as medicine, sciences, engineering, humanities, and english. to this end, 200 master students were collected and tested. in addition, 25 english teachers were inc...

In UIN Prof. K.H. Saifuddin Zuhri, most students, who had taken an English Proficiency Test at the beginning of academic year to recognize students' proficiency, did not achieve a passing grade (450 points) test. This condition drives institution improve student's proficiency through intensive language program that Language Development Unit organizes. The research uses descriptive study analyze...