Research Forum: Japanese EFL Learners' Test-Type Related InterIanguage Variability

Page No.: 
89
Writer(s): 
Akihiro Ito, Hiroshima University

The purpose of this article is two-fold: 1) to investigate the effects of differences in
test-types on the accuracy rates in interlanguage performance of Japanese EFL
learners, and 2) to examine the reliability and validity of a grammaticality judgment
test. Three grammar tests of relative clauses with three different test-types were
assigned to 41 Japanese high school students. The tests were constructed on the
basis of amount of attention to linguistic form from reviewing recent SIA works on
task variation theory. From the results of the investigation, it is argued that 1) the
participants showed different accuracy rates in the three test-types according to
the expected order, and 2) the grammaticality judgment test showed relatively
high reliability (rxx';;:O.792) and moderate validity. The article also discusses the
pedagogical implications of the findings and future direction of research.

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