Abstract:
The Better Edition of Structure Tests - English Language (BESTEL) are revisions of the Structure Tests - English (STEL) and are used to place ESL/EFL students at one of seven instructional levels and/or measure achievement. The levels are Low Beginner, High Beginner, Low Intermediate, High Intermediate, Low Advanced, High Advanced, and Advanced Plus. Item banking and item analysis were used to produce four equivalent test forms of 75 items each with KR-21 reliabilities in the .90s during test development on 1260 subjects. Content validity was assessed by ESL/EFL instructors whose recommendations on which items were to be included in the tests were followed. Cross-validation on the CELSA yields coefficients from .82 - .94. Each for includes 25 beginning level items, 25 intermediate level items, and 25 advanced level items. All items involve sentence completion with three multiple-choice options. Distractors that represent common grammatical errors increase the discriminability of the test. Answers are recorded on a standard response sheet and grading is done by hand using an answer key. Raw scores are converted to percentages and instructional levels using a simple conversion table. Tests are administered according to standardized instructions and take 45 minutes to complete.