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Multiple-choice Test (multiple-choice + test)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences50%

Selected Abstracts

The Effects of Native Language vs.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 5 2001
Target Language Captions on Foreign Language Students' DVD Video Comprehension
A total of 169 intermediate (fourth-semester)students predicated as intact groups in the study. The passage material consisted of a 7-minute DVD episode about preparation for the Apollo 13 space-exploration mission. The students viewed only one of three passage treatment conditions: Spanish captions, English captions, or no captions. The English-language-dependent measures consisted of a written summary generated by the students and a 10-item multiple-choice test. The statistically significant results revealed that the English captions group performed at a substantially higher level than the Spanish captions group, which in turn performed at a considerably higher level than the no captions group on both dependent measures. The pedagogical value of using multilingual soundtracks and multilingual captions in various ways to enhance second language reading and listening comprehension is discussed. [source]

Two New Statistics to Detect Answer Copying

JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT, Issue 1 2003
Leonardo S. Sotaridona
Two new indices to detect answer copying on a multiple-choice test,S1 and S2,were proposed. The S1 index is similar to the K index (Holland, 1996) and the K2 index (Sotaridona & Meijer, 2002) but the distribution of the number of matching incorrect answers of the source and the copier is modeled by the Poisson distribution instead of the binomial distribution to improve the detection rate of K and K2. The S2 index was proposed to overcome a limitation of the K and K2 index, namely, their insensitiveness to correct answers copying. The S2 index incorporates the matching correct answers in addition to the matching incorrect answers. A simulation study was conducted to investigate the usefulness of S1 and S2 for 40- and 80-item tests, 100 and 500 sample sizes, and 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% answer copying. The Type I errors and detection rates of S1 and S2 were compared with those of the K2 and the , copying index (Wollack, 1997). Results showed that all four indices were able to maintain their Type I errors, with S1 and K2 being slightly conservative compared to S2 and ,. Furthermore, S1 had higher detection rates than K2. The S2 index showed a significant improvement in detection rate compared to K and K2. [source]

Avoidance of Phrasal Verbs: The Case of Chinese Learners of English

LANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue 2 2004
Yan Liao
This study investigates the avoidance of English phrasal verbs by Chinese learners. Six groups of Chinese learners (intermediate and advanced; a total of 70) took one of 3 tests (multiple-choice, translation, or recall), which included literal and figurative phrasal verbs, while 15 native speakers took the multiple-choice test. The results show that 3 factors (proficiency level, phrasal- verb type, and test type) affect learners' avoidance of phrasal verbs. The authors speculate that the differences between first and second languages and the semantic difficulty of phrasal verbs may be reasons for the learners' avoidance. Incorporating the findings of 3 previous studies, this study claims that learners' phrasal-verb avoidance behavior is a manifestation of interlanguage development. [source]

Biology and host specificity of Aulacobaris fallax (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), a potential biological control agent for dyer's woad, Isatis tinctoria (Brassicaceae) in North America

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 5 2009
E. Gerber
Abstract Dyer's woad, Isatis tinctoria, a plant of Eurasian origin is a problematic weed in western North America against which a classical biological weed control programme was initiated in 2004. Three European insect species were selected as candidate agents to control this invasive species, including the root-mining weevil Aulacobaris fallax. To determine its suitability as an agent, the biology and host specificity of A. fallax were studied in outdoor plots and in the field between 2004 and 2006 in its native European range. Aulacobaris fallax is a univoltine species that lays its eggs from March to August into leaf stalks and roots of dyer's woad. Larvae mine and pupate in the roots and adults emerge from August to October. Up to 62% of the dyer's woad plants at the field sites investigated were attacked by this weevil. In no-choice host-specificity tests, A. fallax attacked 16 out of 39 species and varieties within the Family Brassicaceae. Twelve of these are native to North America. In subsequent multiple-choice tests, seven species, all native to North America, suffered a similar level of attack as dyer's woad, while none of the European species were attacked. Our results demonstrate the importance of including test plant species that have not co-evolved with the respective candidate agent. In sum, we conclude that the risk of non-target effects is too high for A. fallax to be considered as a biological control agent for dyer's woad in the United States. [source]