tcals: Items parameters of the TCALS 1998 data set and subgroups of items

Description

The TCALS (Test de Connaissance en Anglais Langue Seconde) is an aptitude test of English language as a second language in the French speaking college of Outaouais (Gatineau, QC, Canada). The test consists of 85 items and is administered every year to newly incoming students. The item parameters of the year 1998 have been estimated under the 3PL model. Inattention parameters are therefore fixed to one. Subgroups of items are also included for content balancing purposes.

Arguments

Format

A matrix with 85 rows and five columns, respectively holding the discrimination, difficulty, pseudo-guessing and inattention parameters as calibrated on the results of the 1998 application of the TCALS questionnaire. The fifth column holds the name of the subgroups of items:

Audio1: listening comprehension of sentences (items 1 to 12).
Audio2: listening comprehension of dialogs and short texts (items 13 to 33).
Written1: written vocabulary exercises (items 34 to 46).
Written2: written grammar exercises (items 47 to 63).
Written3: written exercises of other types: reading and mistake detection (items 64 to 85).

Source

The TCALS test was originally developed by Laurier, Froio, Pearo and Fournier (1998) and item parameters were obtained from Raiche (2002).

References

Laurier, M., Froio, L., Pearo C., and Fournier, M. (1998). Test de classement d'anglais langue seconde au collegial. Montreal, Canada: College de Maisonneuve.

Magis, D., and Raiche, G. (2012). Random Generation of Response Patterns under Computerized Adaptive Testing with the R Package catR. Journal of Statistical Software, 48 (8), 1-31. URL http://www.jstatsoft.org/v48/i08/

Raiche, G. (2002). Le depistage du sous-classement aux tests de classement en anglais, langue seconde, au collegial [The detection of under classification to the collegial English as a second language placement tests]. Gatineau, QC: College de l'Outaouais.