Evaluating the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test as a measure of reading comprehension and vocabulary for South African grade eight learners.
Year: 2010
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: One of the needs of assessment practitioners in South Africa is for the adaptation or revision \nof current psychological and educational tests to justify their use in the South African \ncontext. The South African Department of Education called for the re-evaluation of all \nstandardised tests used in the South African context (Department of Education, 1997). The \nStanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT) is an English language proficiency test that is \nuseful in measuring reading comprehension. The fact that English is the language of \ninstruction in most South African schools makes the SDRT a valuable measure for South \nAfrican assessment practitioners. This study evaluated the SDRT as a measure of vocabulary \nand reading comprehension for South African Grade Eight learners on the basis of home \nlanguage and gender. Two subtests (Auditory Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension) of \nthe Brown level of the SDRT were administered to three consecutive years of Grade Eight \nlearners. Of 631 subjects, all of who had received at least five years of English medium \neducation, 279 were English First Language (EFL) learners and 352 were English Additional \nLanguage (EAL) learners. There were 316 male subjects and 315 female subjects. The results \nshowed that the EAL learners performed significantly below the EFL learners on both the \nVocabulary and Reading Comprehension subtests of the SDRT. There was also a significant \ndifference in performance between male and female learners on the Comprehension subtest \nbut not on the Vocabulary subtest. Both the Vocabulary and the Reading Comprehension \nsubtests demonstrated adequate internal consistency. However, the validity of these subtests \nwas questioned because a number of items appeared to demonstrate bias against EAL \nlearners.
Author: Deborah Diane Catto
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W9732660