University of Michigan
In recognition of Mary Spaan’s contributions to the field of language assessment for more than three decades at the University of Michigan, the English Language Institute has initiated the Spaan Fellowship Fund to provide financial support for those wishing to carry out research projects related to second or foreign language assessment and evaluation. The Spaan Fellowship has been created to fund up to six annual awards ranging from $3,000 to $4,000 each.
These fellowships are offered to cover the cost of data collection and analyses, or to defray living and/or travel expenses for those who would like to make use of the English Language Institute’s resources to carry out a research project in second or foreign language assessment or evaluation. These resources include the ELI Testing and Certification Division’s extensive archival test data (ECCE, ECPE, and MELAB) and the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE). Research projects can be completed either in Ann Arbor or off-site.
Applications are welcome from anyone with a research and development background related to second or foreign language assessment and evaluation, especially those interested in analyzing some aspect of the English Language Institute’s suite of tests (MELAB, ECPE, ECCE, or other ELI test publications). Spaan Fellows are likely to be international second or foreign language assessment specialists or teachers who carry out test development or prepare testing-related research articles and dissertations; doctoral graduate students from one of Michigan’s universities who are studying linguistics, education, psychology, or related fields; and doctoral graduate students in foreign language assessment or psychometrics from elsewhere in the United States or abroad.
Proposals for 2006 research studies are due by December 2, 2005. Please see our Web site for information: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/eli/spaanfellowship.htm
2005 Spaan Fellow Projects
The committee for the University of Michigan Spaan Fellowship for Studies in Second or Foreign Language Assessment is pleased to announce the 2005 Spaan Fellowship recipients. Two studies that will be carried out this year deal with detecting bias in essay ratings. Taejoon Park, of Columbia University, will use the logistic regression method to explore differential item functioning across different language groups of examinees who have taken the MELAB writing test. Liz Hamp-Lyons, of the University of Melbourne, and Alan Davies, of the University of Edinburgh, will also look at first language bias in MELAB essays, but they will consider the first language of both the examinee and the essay rater. Lingyan Gao, of the University of Alberta, will apply a cognitive processing model of second language reading to MELAB reading section data. Shudong Wang, of Harcourt Assessment, will explore the factor structure of the ECPE and the MELAB across gender groups. Hyeong-Jong Lee, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), will compare Classical Test Theory methods with Item Response Theory methods in terms of item fit and examinee ability estimates for UIUC’s English placement exam. Finally, Christopher Weaver, of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, will do an in-depth analysis of rating scales used for Japanese university entrance examinations.
These studies will be collected and made available in the Spaan Fellow Working Papers in Second or Foreign Language Assessment series in 2006. The 2005 Spaan Fellow Working Papers (Volume 4) will be available soon. For information about the Spaan Fellowship program, and about the Working Papers, please see our Web site: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/eli/spaanfellowship.htm
Now available from University of Michigan English Language Institute
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/eli/spaanfellowship.htm
Spaan Fellow Working Papers in Second or Foreign Language Assessment
Volume 1, 2003
Development of a Standardized Test for Young EFL Learners
Fernando Fleurquin
A Construct Validation Study of Emphasis Type Questions in the Michigan English Language Assessment Battery
Sang-Keun Shin
Investigating the Construct Validity of the Cloze Section in the Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English
Yoko Saito
An Investigation into the Answer Changing Practices on Multiple-choice Questions with Gulf Arab Learners in an EFL Context
Mashael Al-Hamly and Christine Coombe
Volume 2, 2004
A Construct Validation Study of the Extended Listening Sections of the ECPE and MELAB
Elvis Wagner
Evaluating the Dimensionality of the Michigan English Language Assessment Battery
Hong Jiao
Effects of Errors and Importance Attributed to Language on Language and Rhetorical-Level Essay Scoring
Matthew Weltig
Investigating Language Performance on the Graph Description Task in a Semi-Direct Oral Test
Xiaoming Xi
Switching Constructs: On the Selection of an Appropriate Blueprint for Academic Literacy Assessment
Tobie Van Dyk
Volume 3, 2005
Language Learning Strategy Use and Language Performance on the MELAB
Xiaomei Song
An Investigation into the Nature of and Factors Affecting Test Takers' Calibration within the Context of an English Placement Test (EPT)
Aek Phakiti
A Discourse Analytic Study on the Discoursal Behavior by the Examiners of the ECCE Speaking Test
Yang Lu
Investigation of Lexical Profiles in the Performance on EAP Speaking Tests
Noriko Iwashita
A Summary of Construct Validation of an English for Academic Purposes Placement Test
Young-Ju Lee