COMPUTER ADAPTIVE TESTING (CAT) DESIGN; TESTING ALGORITHM AND ADMINISTRATION MODE INVESTIGATION

Abstract

Since the advent of technology to transform education, the use of computer technology has pervaded many areas of fields of study such as language learning and testing. Chapelle (2010) distinguishes three main motives for using technology in language testing: efficiency, equivalence and innovation. Computer as a frequently used technological tool has been widely inspected in the field of language assessment and testing. Compute-adaptive language test (CALT) is a subtype and subtest of computer-assisted language test because it is administered at computer terminal or on personal computer. The issue that currently needs more attention and prompt investigation of researchers is to study the testing mode and paradigm effects on comparability and equivalency of the data obtained from two modes of presentation, i.e. traditional paper-and-pencil (PPT) and computerized tests. To establish comparability and equivalency of computerized test with its paper-and-pencil counterpart is of importance and critical. Then, in this study, the researcher indicate that in order to replace computer-adaptive test with conventional paper-and-pencil one, we need to prove that these two versions of test are comparable, in other words the validity and reliability of computerized counterpart are not violated