Abstract:
The IDEA Oral Language Proficiency Test I was designed to determine the level of English oral language proficiency of students in grades K-6 who are native speakers of other languages. It will provide the information necessary to classify these students as Non-, Limited, or Fluent English-Speaking as well as provide diagnostic information for instruction. The test has six domains: Syntax, Morphological Structure, Lexical Items, Phonological Structure, Comprehension, and Oral Production. Most test items involve several of these domains concurrently, rather than having separate sections for each domain. Picture cards in an easel-style book accompany most items, and examinees move through a series of levels until proficiency ceiling has been reached. The examiner marks each item either Correct or Incorrect, but responses to items are allowed to vary. Average test time is 14 minutes. 1,054 students from 8 states served as the norming sample and content validity was established by testing native English speakers. Theoretically, native speakers should get high scores on a test of English and they did, especially in the Lexicon, Phonology, Comprehension, and Oral Expression domains. In addition, scores improve with age, which shows the expected developmental influence, and students who had been in this country longer had higher scores. Split-half reliability is .82 and test-retest reliability is .92. No concurrent validity with other instruments was assessed.