An Experimental Study of the Prediction of Scholastic Success in Beginning Modern Foreign Language Classes at the College Level

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Aft EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE PM&XC?T6 e OF:SCHqLA^ 20 -SUCCESS: IS BEGINNING MODERN FOREIGN LABStiAOE CLASSES.' AT THE COLLEGE LEVEL , !'

by

Jamas Ray Nielson

A dissertation submitted In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of philosophy, in the Deportment of Romance Languages, in the Graduate College of the State University of Iowa

July, 1942

ProQuest Number: 10831776

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the writer is deeply grateful to Dr# Grace Cochran and Dr* Dewey B* Stuit for suggesting the tuple of this study* for their eonstaut and valuable assistance throughout the course of the experiment* and for their many helpful suggestions# Special thanks are due to Dr# U s e P# Laaa and Dr# Brleh Funks for their patience and cooperation in making available the records of Spanish and German students# Grateful acknowledgment is made to !&»• Michael Adams for his encouragement and aid#

Hi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I

PRge

THE MOSLEM AM) METHODS OF PROCEDURE * . * * ................ Introductory Remarks. , , v # t « * * The Problem * * * * * * * * • * • * « • • * * * • * * * • * Function of Prognosis Tests and their Limitations « • * * « Sources of Data and Techniques* « ♦ » * ♦ * « • » # * * » •

II

* * * * * *

* *

» * « * * • * * «

Status of Modern Language Prognosis in 1089 * • * • * » » • Early Prognosis Batteries , « . . * # * * « « • * * • * • » Widely Known Tests in Resent Use# • . * • * • * * * • • • • Other Studies in Prognosis Since the Committee Report • « « The Most promising Prognosis Material • * • • • * • • • • •

IF

1 2 3 ®

ANALYSIS OF MOST PROMINENT EXISTING PROGNOSIS INSTRUMENTS AND review of prognosis studies

III

1

8

8 10 18 SO 38

THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGNOSIS TEST. • ♦ ADMINISTRATION, EVALUATION, A W REVISION OF THE EXPERB®I^TAL EDITION ........ . . « » * •

45

Administration of Test* « * • * • • • • • * • « • • • * • • 45 Methods of Instruetion and Measurement* • • • • • • • • • • 46 Results at the End of the First Semester* • • * • * • • • • 48 Reliability of the Experimental Edition............. . « « 64 prediction of Seeond Semester Grades* * • * • • • « • • » « 64 Revision of the Experimental Edition* • • * • • * • » • • • 66 Summary « « * . . . • • * » . • * * • * • . * . . * . . • • 59 V

VI

ADMINISTRATION AND EVALUATION OF TIE REVISED EDITION * * * • «

61

Administration of Revised Edition * » • * • • • • * • • • * Results at the End of the First Semester* » * * # • • * • • Practical Interpretation of the Correlations* « • • * • • * Reliability Coeffieients. « * . * * * « * * . • • Effect of the Revision* • • « » • * • • • • * * * » • • « • Value of the Test • * • * * • • * * * • • * * * . ........ Summary and Conoluslons • • • • • • « • * * • « • « * • • •

61 61

ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS IN THE PREDICTION OF LANGUAGE SUCCESS* * * * * * * ........ * • • • * * ........

66

74 74 76 78

81

Additional prognosis Testing Material • • « * • • « . • • • 81 Predict ive Value for Foreign Languages of the Iowa Qualifying Examination * * * * * ..................... , 84 Predictive Value of the Number of Semesters of Previous Foreign Language Study • • • • ♦ • • ♦ # * * . . * . , , . 89 Multiple Correlations * * * ♦ • * « * * « , , * . * * , . , 92 Investigations of Sex Differences • • • * * • * * * * , » . 93 Summary . * * * ............... .......... ......... . , . 9 6

iv Chapter vii

summary am

Qomtmmm

Summary* • • « • • * • • • * * • • • » » * « ' • • • Conclusions* * • * . » • * « • » * • * . • • • . • • < . . • Suggested problems far Prospective Research. • • » * • • • BIBLIOGRAPHY» * A P M D U*

........ ......... ................... .. •

98 104 106 108

......................................115

Supplementary Tables # • # • * * • * * » • « « » » « • • « Sample Tests

116 124

V LIST OF TABLES

Table 1

2

Rating of Parte of Five Meet Prominent Existing Prognosis Tests * * * .* . 4 4 • * . . * > * * * * * * * • * • < * * * ♦

*

w

Correlation Coefflotents between Total Scores on Prognosis Tost and First Semester Language grades* February* 1941* • • • » • •

49

Correlations and Intercorrelationa of Ports of Altitude Test and Grades for the french Group * * • * • * » • • • • » « * • * * *

SO

Correlations and Intereorrelatlons of Parts of Aptitude Test and Grades for Spanish Group* * * • * * • * * # * * * * • * * * * *

61

Correlations and Intereerrolations of Parts of Aptitude Test and Grades for German Group * * « • « * * « * * * • * » • * * • • •

61

Measures of Efficiency of prediction Expressed in Per Cents for Three Validity Coefficients * • * * • * * * * * * * * * # « # «

53

Comparison of Correlations between Final Grades and Aptitude Test Scores for First and Second Semesters* ........ • • • • •

56

Part Correlations and Xntereerrolatiens between Parts of the Aptitude Test and Second Semester Freneh Grades * • • * • « • •

56

part Correlations and Intereorrelatlons between Parts of the Aptitude Test and Second Semester Spanish Grades* • • * • * * *

66

Part Correlations and intereerrolations between Parts of the Aptitude Test and Second Semester German Grades * * • • • * • •

66

11

Elimination* Replacement and Revision of Items for Mew Edition *

58

12

Comparison of r*s obtained between Aptitude Test Scores and First Semester Grades in 1941 and 1948* * • • • * • « * • » * *

62

Part Correlations and Intereorrelatlons between Aptitude Test Scores* Final Exam Scores* and Final Grades— French * . * , , .

64

Part Correlations and Intereorrelatlons between Aptitude Test Scores* Final Exam Scores* and Final Grades— Spanish* * * * * *

64

Part Correlations and Intereorrelatlons between Aptitude Test Scores and Final Grades— German * • • • * « • • • « # • * • • •

64

Measures of Efficiency of prediction Expressed in Per Cents for Three Validity Coefficients* 1941*42• • • » « • • * • • * * • •

66

The Relationship of Levels of Achievement Predicted by the Aptitude Test to Actual First Semester Grades in Freneh * * * *

70

$

4

5

€

7

6

9

10

15

14

16

16

17

Vi Table 18

19

00

01

20

28

24

03

06

27

23

29

30

The Relationship of Chance Predicted Grades to Actual First Semester Grades for Freneh * * * * # * ♦ * • • ♦ •

70

The Relationship of Levels of Achievement Predieted by the Aptitude Test to Aotual First Semester Grades in Spanish * • *

72

The Relationship of Chance Predieted Grades to Aotual First Semester Grades for Spanish* ........

70

The Relationship of Levels of Achievement predieted by the Aptitude Test to Aotual First Semester Grades in German* • • •

7$

The Relationship of Chance Predicted Grades to Aotual First Semester Grades for German ........ * • •

73

Comparison of the Predictive Efficiency of the Aptitude Test with Efficiency of Prediction by Chance* * * « • * . * * * » •

79

Correlations between. Language Usage Test Scores and Other Variables* • • * • • • • • * • # • • * • • • * • • • • . * « «

83

Correlations between Aptitude Test Total Scores and First Semester Grades for Two Groups of French, Spanish and German Students » * • * » » * * • * • • • • * * * « • » • * • » * * *

87

Correlations between First Semester Language Grades and Sundry Data • • • * • * « • • « • • » • • • • • * • * • • • • • • • •

87

Correlation Coefficients between Number of Semesters of Previous Foreign Language Study and Grades in Freneh, Spanish and German « • « • • • • • * * * • « • « • • • « • * * « • * * * *

90

Correlations between Aptitude Test Scores and First Semester Grades for 1941*48 Spanish Students with Various Amounts of devious Foreign Language Studyi Means and Standard Deviations for Both Distributions « « • * * * « * * * * * * • * * * * * *

92

Comparison of S*s for (1) Grades with Three Farts of Aptitude Test and (2) Grades with Total Aptitude Test Score, Composite Scale Score, and Semesters of Previous Language* • * • * » • *

93

Sex Differences in Achievement for 1940-41 Spanish Group* * * *

93

31

Means and Standard Deviations for Parts of the Aptitude Test and Grades for First Semester 1940-41 Distributions* • * * * * * * 116

32

Means and Standard Deviations for Parts of the Aptitude Test and Grades for Second Semester 1940-41 Distributions » « • * • • • 116

33

Means and Standard Deviations for First Semester 1941-42 Distributions (All Students who Took Aptitude Test and Received a Grade)* • • * . • • • • • . » • • * • • • ........

117

vii Table 34

33

Means and Standard Deviations for First Semester 1941-42 Distributions (Students who Took Qualifying Examination, Aptitude Test, and Received a Final Grade) •

page

117

Summary of Steps in item Analysis Showing Per Cent of Correct Responses on Bach item of Aptitude Test for Highest and Lowest Third of ISO Freneh Students, with Values of the Discrimina­ tive Ability and Difficulty of Each Item . • • • . • « • • • • , 116

CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AMD METHODS OF PROCEDURE

Introductory Remarks Prognosis testing in the foreign languages has a history of over thirty years, mostly in the field of secondary education*

In 1929,

the American and Canadian Committees on Modern Languages published a volume of reports on the subject** defining the status of prognosis testing and encouraging further research*

In the decade following

the appearance of this work many additional investigations were eon* ducted*

Experimental evidence was accumulated for a number of the

existing prognosis tests, and for the predictive power of certain other measures* school level*

The bulk of these data were obtained at the secondary

Prognosis at the eollege level is scarcely less ixo»

portent, however# for many colleges and universities have large numbers of beginning language students who can be benefited by an accurate analysis of their foreign language ability*

Mow and carefully con­

ducted research at the college level should be a worthwhile confer!** button to prognosis* The scarcity of new teste designed for language prognosis constitutes another outstanding gap in the field* published since 1930* out of print*

Only one has been

Designed solely for Spanish, it is at present

Such is the general background from which this study

takes form* Additional incentive for the experiment was furnished by the

Nr*

A* C* Henman et al*. Prognosis Tests la the Modern Foreign Languages* Publications of the American and Canadian Committees on Modern Languages, Vol, XIV* Hew Yorke The Macmillan Company, 1939, 182 pp.

need far a new language prognosis test at the State University of Iowa. A recent study1 of the existing test, the Iowa Foreign Language Apti­ tude Teat, FA-1, published in 1925, indicated that it contained many defective items, and was in need of extensive revision or replacement.

The Problem Statement of the Problem* The purpose of the present experiment was (!) to study the existing information on foreign language prognosis in general! (8 ) to analyze the materials that have been used for predieting language success in an effort to determine which have proved most valuable! (3) to build, in the light of such a study, a new prognosis test that might be published In the Zewa Placement Examinations series and be used in advising and sectioning beginning foreign language students at the col­ lege level, or in determining the proper level of instruction in un­ seatlened classesi (4) to evaluate this test in terms of its efficiency! (6 ) to revise the test, eliminating items that show poor discrimination between good and peer students $ (6) to readminister and re-evaluate the test, as a check on its consistency and worth* and (7) to make from the available data any supplementary investigations that might be of value to language prognosis*

Importance of the Ezperiment. The importance of the field of prognosis in general is so well recognised that it needs no JustUTioet ion here#

This experiment

yvss

I James F. Rumman, A Statistical Analysis of the Foreign language Aptitude Test of the* Iowa placemeni BxamTnajTions. Unpub­ lished Master's bbesls,H^ale University of Iowa, IowaTjTty, 1959, 55 pp*

planned with a desire to mice the following contributions to the gen* oral field of foreign language prognosis* (1 ) a comparison and analysis of existing published prognosis tests for m o d e m languages as concerns their subject matter and value as shows by experimental evidences (2 ) a new prognosis test designed to include so far as possible the best fea­ tures of previous tests in a field having no new tests of wide acceptance since 1930* (3) the resets from two yoar*s administration of this test as an instrument for predicting seholaetlo success in French, Spanish, and Gorman at the university of Iowa, based upon sufficient numbers of eases to give trustworthy results| (4) a study of the predictive power for modern foreign languages of the four tests in the Zewa Qualifying Examinations (5) useful data concerning other promising material for predicting foreign language achievement i (6 ) a study of the relation between the amount of previous foreign language and ability to succeed in a new language*

Function of Prognosis Teats and their Limitations Usefulness of Prognosis Tests* The function of any prognostic instrument is to furnish a basis for Judging the probable achievement of the individual before his work la a given field has actually begun*

la college foreign language

departments there is seldom a desire to eliminate students before they begin their study*

On the contrary, substantial numbers of students

are required to study a foreign language for a certain period of time* Since students who are unable to fulfill their language requirements will be unable to receive degrees, it is important that an advisor have objective evidence for counseling students of doubtful ability* Since no student is kept from taking a foreign language, nmny

colleges have adopted a policy of sectioning beginning students into homogeneous groups, attempting to adapt the level of instruction in each group to its optimum level of achievement# proved its worth#

This practice has well

For example, experiments by Tharp1 shewed that sec­

tioned students achieved more than did unsectiosod students of similar ability#

An Important function of a prognosis test# then, is to enable

a language department te group its students effectively at the vary beginning of the course, sc that the least time will be wasted from improper sectioning, and so that maty students will not be forced to shift from class to class and instructor to instructor, before finding the instruction level most suitable to their capabilities#

At the

University of Iowa, sections are usually flexible, so that a student may c a m a letter grade higher or lower than the general level of the group#

indicating probable first term success is the main purpose of

a prognosis test#

After one term, a test measuring achievement in the

subject is the best indication of second term success* From the above discussion, it might be concluded that the useful prognosis test should predict within one grade category above or below the attained one, the achievement of practically all the students#

Far sectioning to be of value, it is especially necessary

that the test indicate those students whose achievement will be ex­ ceptionally high or low#

It will be noted that if placement for all

students within plus or minus one grade category is obtained, predicted "A" students will not achieve lower than "B*, and predicted nFdN or

*J*B# Tharp, "How Shall We Section Beginning Foreign Language ClassesfH* Modern Language Journal, XIII, 6 (November, 1987), pp. 453-449*

5 failing students will achieve no higher than ffPw*

It is at the ex­

tremes of the scale that accurate prediction is most important*

Factors Limiting the Effectiveness of Prognosis* If a prognosis test existed that would rank students per* feetly according to their ability to succeed in language study* such a test would none the less fail to predict the exact achievement of all students*

This is because of the obvious fact that ability alone does

not determine success*

In fact* the author of one test claims that his

test does measure language ability almost perfectly** A number of extraneous factors operate to make students achieve higher or lorn* than their abilities or capacities indicate that they should*

The writer has collected the following list of “variables*

influencing the achievement of students which have been offered by various experimenters in explanation of the lowness of coefficients of correlations amount of previous language training* Interest* time for study* outside aid for slcnr students* lasiness* illness* unfair shunting into “slew* classes* dissatisfaction with the teacher* study habits* school attitude* outside activities* motivation* work outside of school* extra«currieular activities* emotional disturbances* organisation of elass material* skill of the teacher* the dropping out of students between presentation of the aptitude test and presentation of the criterion test*

Almost any one of these factors* if it operates to

exoess* m y influence the attainment of a studenti a student of Inferior

^Percival M* Symonds, *A Foreign language Prognosis Test** Teachers College Record* XXXI (March, IPSO)* Pp# 540-556, In this article dyiOTZBT*says, ’"it is the writer*a belief that the prognosis tests give an almost perfect measure of the ability to learn a foreign language* which does not show in the correlations or *70 because so many other factors besides ability enter into final achievement** (P* 561),

ability may have the background or study habits necessary to achieve highly* a student who is ill much of the time er overworked may fall short of his potential rank in the class#

Sources of Data and Techniques

Subjects for the gsperIroent. In the study ,of this problem, the records of all the begin­ ning students in French, Spanish, and German at the State Dfciversity of Iowa for the school years 194(1*41 and 1941-42 have been used#

This

has amounted to something less than one thousand cases per year#

The

actual numbers for each year of those whose records were complete are as followst

1940*41 1941*42

Spanish* 694 Spanish* 697

German* 206 German* 178

French* 166 Freneh* 160

Discussion of Terms Used# There has been a tendency to use interchangeably the terms “prognosis test" and “aptitude test"# able

Such a practice becomes question­

if language aptitude is taken to Imply a special “talent11 or "gift*,

because psychologists are net in agreement as to whether linguistic ability is a special capacity or a phase of general intelligence#

Examples

may be found of students who do well la other studies, but fall in lan­ guages#

This might be due to some lack of language "talent", or to one

or more other causes, such as lack of interest# From the point of view* of the present study, the question is net important#

la some respects it is a quibble over terms* for

prognosis it matters little whether one calls his predictive index a measure of talent or of intelligence#

The purpose of this study is

to indicate the material most effective for predicting beginning lan­ guage success in college, whether the skill tested fee labeled "lin­ guistically weighted intelligence” or “innate language aptitude**

In

this experiment* the tens "prognosis test* is preferred to indicate Such testing material*

Since the l e m test is named "Foreign Lan­

guage Aptitude lest** the term Aptitude test is used to refer to it by name *

Statistical Techniques and Terms* Certain elementary statistical techniques are indispen­ sable to a study of this kind*

Most of those herein used are of the

simplest kind* explained in any statistics textbook*

The arithmetic

mean and standard deviation (designated as M and $«&•) were obtained for nearly all distributions*'1

The Pearson Product-Moment coefficient

of correlation* whose symbol is r* is used throughout as an index of the relation between two tar tables*

Of the several hundred such

coefficients reported in this study* the majority were calculated by the State University of Iowa Statistical Service*

A few were calcu­

lated by the writer* by the use of a correlation chart*

Methods used

for calculating Multiple Correlation coefficients* regression equations* reliability coefficients* and indices of forecasting efficiency are referred to where they occur in the work*

^See Appendix* pp. 116-17.

CHAPTER II ANALYSIS OP MOST PROMINENT EXISTING PROGNOSIS INSTRUMENTS AND REVIEW OP PROGNOSIS STUDIES

Status of Modern Language Prognosis in 1929 In 1029* the American and Canadian Committees on Modern languages published an important volume concerning the field of prognosis** The purpose was two-fold* to summarise the findings of previous research dealing with the subject* and to report a number of experiments carried out under the Committee*s sponsorship for the purpose of offering a complete picture of the status of prognosis— its value and limitations— to modern language teachers*

As Prof* Henmon remarked* in a preface*

"While the final solution of the problem of predicting accomplishment in the modern foreign languages is not offered* the studies are all con­ tributions to this end*

Future workers in this difficult field will* it

is believed* find them profitable and in many ways illuminating* "®

AS it

concerns this study* the most important features of the volume aret (1 ) the bases used for prediction* and (2 ) the conclusions drawn from experiments with them* The general intelligence test is perhaps the oldest and most thoroughly investigated basis for prediction of academic success*

Indeed*

the present-day aptitude or prognosis test is an outgrowth of the general intelligence test* through the attempt to adapt it to the needs of one particular field*

Many investigators have tried to use unadapted intel­

ligence tests for prediction of success in the foreign languages*

V * A* C* Henmon et al*, ogu oit*

In

the Committee Report on prognosis,^ Henman describes such experiments* The correlation coefficients between intelligence test scores and achieve­ ment criteria such as teachers grades or examination scores are almost invariably lew#

At the college level, in studies by Tharp, Odell, and

Bohan,* they never rise above *55* A second basis for prediction reported for the Committee Is the previous school record or sehelarship level of the student#

For

example, the high school grades of a college Freshman may be combined into a single "score" or numerical equivalentj or, he may be given a series of entrance examinations which refleet his high school attain­ ment*

The latter method is considered mere meaningful, because, when

it is used, individual scores are more comparable*

It may be true that

these seores are valuable in predicting the student’s general college achievement, but the Committee’s evaluation of several studies using these measures shews them inadequate for language prognosis#

High

school records seldom form a very satisfactory predictive index because of their "variability, inaccuracy, and subjectivity#11® Considerable attention has been given the relation of ability or past achievement in the vernacular to future success in a foreign language#

The Committee Report Included a chapter on this subject by

Prof# John g* Bohan#4

His data shewed a relationship between college

English grades and beginning college language grades represented by

^Tbid#, pp# ®Xbld*, p*

6-1 2 # 11*

8 lbld*,

pp* 12-19#

4 Ibid**

Chapter II*

a o

coefficients of correlation ranging from .50 to *50 for groups ranging in site from 50 to 251.

As Bohan pointed out* the value of these data

is lessened by the fact that college English marks are seldom available for beginning language students in college.

Bohan had* however, indi­

cated a promising field for further research*

More recent experiments

are summarised later in this chapter# The chief attention of the Committee Report was directed to special language prognosis tests*

Henmon, in his chapter on prognosis

in general* was of the opinion that such tests give an imperfect but promising solution to the matter of prognosist The evidence presented in this summary indicates that special prognosis teste are mere effective instruments than general intelligence tests* and that these together with objective measurements in a trial period furnish* in the present state of our knowledge* the best basis of prediction and classification** The nest step in this study is* therefore* an analysis of the tests that have been designed for language prediction* and an examination of their merits end defects in an attempt to conclude from them what kind of test­ ing material is most fertile*

Barly Prognosis Batteries Some of th© very earliest prognosis tests are now out of print* and it has not always been possible for the writer to examine them person­ ally,

It should be sufficient* however* to mention them and to present

a summary of the experimental evidence concerning them*

It has been

equally impossible to find evidence at the college level concerning all of these tests*

1 Ibid.#

p* SI.

In 1918, Briggs1 constructed a battery of tests designed to measure the mental activities involved in the learning of a foreign language*

According to his analysis* these were* (1) memorising vocab­

ulary! (2) memorising paradigms I (5) translation*

His tests were admin­

istered to students in various high schools* and by the use of regression equations he obtained a battery that correlated as highly as #47 with his achievement criterion# In 1921* Allen2 published the report of a further attempt at constructing a prognosis test* following the lines opened by Briggs# Allen used 594 high school eases*

He developed a battery which required

70 minutes for administration, and which correlated *538 with achieve­ ment criteria*

Allen found that his test predicted Latin* English* and

Mathematics grades with about equal efficiency (r*s ranging between *50 to *69)#

He found also that a thirteen minute test* "Briggs Analogies

Test* correlated with his Latin criteria almost as well as the longer battery ( r e *56)*

boy cow

A sample of the Briggs analogies 1st

beys cow’s

woman she

ZZZHII

A word must be supplied so that the second pair of words has the same grammatical relation to each other as the first pair*

*T* H# Briggs* "Prognosis Tests of Ability to Learn Foreign Languages** Journal of Educational Research* 1922* Pp* 586-592* ®W* 8 * Allen* A Study in Latin Prognosis, Teachers College Contributions to Education*" Me* TSfe* Mew ¥orki feaohers College* Columbia University, 1921*

THE HANDSCHIN PREDETEHMIKATION TEST* By G. H* Hands chin* Washington D*C«« U.S. Bureau of Eduoation, 1921* According to the Coleman Bibliography for 1927-52,* the contont of the three parte of the test is as follows* (a) seeingwritings (b) hearing; (©) grammar*

The outstanding study mad© with

this test was by Prof* R, J, Van Tassel.2

In 1925 he obtained scores

on this tost for 204 ninth grade pupils in fir® Dayton, Ohio, high schools.

Two criteria of achievement were used* teachersf grades, and

a composite of teachers* grades plus scores on the American Council French test.

A multiple correlation using the sere-order coefficients

of each of the three parts with teachers * marks yielded an R of .561, the highest Van Tassel was able to obtain*

The correlations of the

parts with teachers* grades ranged from *27 to ,35*

Recently Handschin

has said that this test is out of print, and that it proved to be an Inadequate solution to the prognosis problem.^ WILKINS PROGNOSIS TEST IN MODERN LANGUAGES, PRELIMINARY TESTS AND E L M H A T X O N TESTS AFTER FOUR WEEKS OF STUDY* By L. A* Wilkins, Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York* World Book Company, 1930. The content of this test is described by Coleman as* "visualmotor, aural-motor, memory, grammar concepts,"4

Some early experiments,

with small numbers of cases or without scientific methods of evaluation, indicated that this was an efficient test*5

The Committee's study,

^Algernon Coleman, An Analytical Bibliography of Modern lan­ guage Teaching— 1927-1932* Chicago* The Dhiversity of"Chicago Press, frat sbb, r T '"'T Penmen ot a l „ op. ett«, Chapter VIII. ^Charles H. Handschin, Modern language Teaching. Yonkers-onHudson, New York* The World Book Company, 1946, p." I~4S*~ * 0 p. cit», p. 266* 5 Studies published by Castaneda in 1925, Jordan in 1925, and Blakely in 1927. See Bibliography for complete references.

however# presented contrary results*

L* T* Hopkins^ gave the test to

about 1000 high school Freneh and Spanish pupils in Colorado in 1825* and obtained coefficients ranging from *055 to *515 with such criteria as teachers * marks and American Council achievement tests*

Be eon-

.*

eluded that the test does not measure appreciably any of the abilities and functions used la modern language work* She first two special modern language prognosis tests were* then* admitted failures*

Tan Tassel observed* however* that the parts

of them testing a knowledge of English grammar concepts correlated most highly with achievement criteria**

Widely Known Tests in Recent bee

*

The next tests to be discussed have been widely used as prog­ nostic instruments* and have furnished data for published experiments* This mass of experimental evidence has frequently given a variety of results for each test* so that it is difficult to draw reliable con­ clusions*

There are several reasons for the variations*

In the first

place* the number of students whose records are included in the studies has often been small*

When statistical techniques ere used* the like­

lihood of sampling error is always greater for a small number of cases* The effort to obtain larger numbers of cases has sometimes been a second factor in the unreliability of certain prognosis studies*

Some exper­

imenters, after administering a prognosis test to different groups of students in different languages and with no consistent criteria of success* consider the total number as a single group in evaluating the test*

^Henmon, at &!** op* eit»* Chapter IT*

2Ibid., p. 178.

This

14 practice m y easily give spurious results* bemuse the measure of success is not the same for everyone*

Even when the seme achievement test is

given to all groups* a lack of uniformity in objectives and methods of teaching may easily introduce inaccuracies.

However* some valid evidence

does exist for each of the following tests* I 0 m HACEMEMT EJBUimf lOJ^FOREIGH LAMGVAGB APTITUBS* SERIES PA-1* REVISED* By G* B* Stoddard and 0* E* Tender Beks* Iowa City* lowas Extension Division* State University of Iowa* 1935* This is one of the oldest prognosis tests* but it has not been revised sines 1935* utes*

There are two similar forms* each requiring 4b min­

Experimental evidence shows that it has been as successful as any

other test of similar length*

It is divided into four parts*

Since a

major purpose of this study was to construct a more efficient test to re­ place the Iowa FA-1* it will be analysed in some detail* Stoddard* in discussing the test* has said that part 1 "is a modified form of the Wilkins test of grammar concepts *n* a part of the prediction battery mentioned earlier in this chapter*

In addition

Stoddard said* part 1 is a brief measure of the elements of English gram­ mar with special reference to parts of speech* inflections* and the roots of oommon English words* This part was included in the test because of personal experience of one of the authors (Hr* Tender Bake) and of other language teachers (130) that one of the essentials of the study of foreign language is knowledge of certain elements In English grammar*2 part 1 is divided into three sections* student is given a list of twenty words*

la section A* the

He must recognise the part

of speech of each word* and then rewrite it* making all nouns and 1 George D* Stoddard* Iowa Placement Examinations* university Of Iowa Studies in Education* lils3, '(First Series no. 9§)t 1925* P* 19*

W

.

p. 82.

pronouns plural* putting all verbs in the past participle* and all adjectives in the superlative degree* In section B* much the same skill is measured by a different approach*

The student is given ten sentences* and directed to rewrite

each* making all nouns and pronouns plural* putting all verbs in the plural* future tense*

in Section 0 the student writes a noun formed

from each of twenty verbs*

The time allowed for Bart 1 is ten minutes*

All available data indicate that Bart 1 is the most valuable part of the test*

Stoddard1 reported a coefficient of *692 between this

part of the test and first semester grades for seventy-nine eases* e Kamman obtained the following results« Correlations between F*A*-1* B* Bart 1 and Grades in Elementary Language Classes French (E * 260)

Spanish (H s 188)

*520 ±*050

*617 ±*055

In each of the above instances* part did the entire test* analysis* that Fart

German (ff W 184)

1

*520 ± .056

correlated almost as highly as

Kamman further reported* on the basis of an item 1

was relatively free from items failing to dis­

criminate adequately between superior and inferior students*5

He did

find* however* that 16# of the items were defective* Of Fart 2 Stoddard says* Fart 2 attempts to measure the amount of transfer of train­ ing from English to an unfamiliar language* Esperanto is employed, and in most oases the student’s success in recognising the sig­ nificant word in the Esperanto sentence depends on his ability to grasp the probable meaning of the whole unit of thought** *Ibld.* p* 65* F* Karaman* op* eit** p* 12* 3 Ibid**

p* 25*

^Stoddard* op* eit** p* 52*

A twelve minute test, Part 2 consists of forty Esperanto sentences, each containing an italicised word*

The student is told that each italicised

word resembles an English word, and that he is to write that English word on the appropriate blank*

Eaiaman^s analysis1 found 4S^ of the items in

this section to be defective*

The correlations between fart 2 and grades

reported by Kjamman^ wares Freneh, *397 t #055j Spanish, *422 **04j German, *504 t *037*

The directions for this part are faulty*

She italicised

words do not always resemble English words, ass "E» la printempo la glaelo la aego fluidigas**

No English word meaning "snow" resembles nogo*

Other italicised words may be deceptive cognates, ast "Papero estas blaafea**

The meaning is "white", most students wrote "blank11* A third

defeet comes from the fact that frequently the sentence is superfluous, and students may guess the word without the remainder of the sentence, as * "Kies amikejm vi vis itis?" you visit?"

The sentence means "Which friends did

but few students would bother to reconstruct the sentence

before writing the word "visit"* In part 3 Esperanto is employed to measure the student's ability to comprehend and apply rules of grammar* Three rules ere given which deal with the formation of words from roots and the number system in Esperanto*® Investigations show that this twelve minute part is weak* found it to correlate only *29 with r*s of only *33 to *39,®

grades

He says further *

1

nttumaa, eg* eit*, p* 23*

2

Kamman, eg* cit *, p*

12*

®Stoddard, og* cit*, p* 32# 4 Ibld*,

p, S3.

Stoddard

,4 and Kamman reports for it

Thirty-one per cent of the items in Fart 3 are defective, and the predietive coefficient is leer for all three languages* This part of the test is in need of extensive revision.* A possible explanation of the loir predietive value of Fart 3 is that its material may not be elesely related te that of beginning language courses, the artificial grammar eoneepts whieh it tests being peculiar te the Esperanto language* Fart 4 attempts to incorporate in the test a measure of aptitude for translation* The student observes an English translation of material in Esperanto and is asked for English equivalents* Esperanto equivalents, and parts of speech** Ability to translate words and word«*gr©ups is certainly required to some extent in any beginning language course.

This part of the test, although

free from defective items according to Katsman's analysis,® nevertheless fails to show much predictive value*

Stoddard reported for it an r of

*39,4 Kamman's French, Spanish, and German groups gave r's of *363, #182, and #460 respectively*®

Either translation is an unimportant skill in

foreign language learning, or this test does not measure it adequately for purposes of prediction*

The present writer's opinion is that Fart 4

is too much a measure of speed and visualwmetor skill, at the expense of actual linguistic comprohension and expression* The test as a whole has long been used as a basis for section­ ing and counseling in modern language departments at the University of Iowa, and has been fairly satisfactory as a basis for group prediction* Supplementary data concerning its validity were offered by Tharp at the ^Ibid*, p* 27* 2 Stoddard,

og, cit*, p* 32.

SJ5ams»n, og, cit,, p. 23* 4 Steddard,

og* cit*, p*

68*

s vBansoan, og* eit#, p* 23#

U niversity of Illinois in 1927.1

He found the following coefficients

between the aptitude test scores and semester grades In beginning lan­ guage t French Spanish

*41 ±*086 .54 ± .019

Cti * 899) (18 * 624)

In 1929 he reported an r of .61 for 118 French students at the university of Illinois between FA**1 scores and first semester grades.2

BMHmanfs

more recent experiment reported the following correlations between the Aptitude test total scores and beginning language gradesiS French Spanish German

.658 ± .028 *586 ± .085 .558 t .084

(W 8 260) (H 8 188) (N « 184)

these results may be taken as indicative of the typical performance of the old Iowa test. A FOREIGN L k W m m PROGNOSIS TEST* FOB?® A A W B. By Percival M. Syraonds. BOW York* Bureau of publications, teachers College. Columbia University. 1980. This test Is perhaps the most widely known of all.

It was

designed primarily for use with pupils in the eighth or ninth grades* but may be administered to foreign language beginners at any level from the seventh grade to the fourth year of college.

Its author has pub­

lished several articles regarding its composition and revision* while many studies In various parts of the nation have been made to test its validity. Symonds constructed an experimental battery with four tests

*J. B# Tharp* "Sectioning in Romance Classes at the University of Illinois." Studies in Modern Language Teaching* publications of American and Gana&ian Committees on M o d e m Languages* Vol. XVII. Pp* 362-432*

2 Classes?"

J. B. Tharp* "Hew Shall BO Section Beginning Foreign Language Op* cit»* pp* 483-449.

3

drawn from intelligence test batteries, his own English-Esperanto and Esperanto-Engllsh translation tests, Dodd’s Artificial Language test* and the Iowa Foreign Language Aptitude test*

By administering all these tests

to four high schools in Iowa, Wisconsin, and New York* he ehose the tests to make up the two forms of his own battery* revising them when It seemed advisable*1 The test has two forms* each with four parts and each requiring forty-four minutes.

The two forms contain different types of material and

may be given simultaneously to increase the efficiency of prediction.

In

the Manual of Directions Symonds has said* "Form A or Form B may be used alone with equally satisfactory results*

But it is strongly urged that

both forms be used together for best results." In a later article*2 Symonds presented data concerning the pre­ diction value of the revised teste* and gave a part by part discussion of Forms A and B*

This article has been consulted frequently in making the

following analysis of the tests.

Form A » Test 1 is entitled English Inflection.

It consists of thirty

Items of which the following is a sample i "1 . Change the noun to the plural.

The child came alone

(

The student should write the word "children*1 in the parentheses. for this test came from the Iowa FA-1* part 1-B.

)" The idea

It is designed to test

inflectional abilities thought to carry over into foreign language study. Test 2 Word Translation— English to Esperanto.

This test was

suggested by Fart 4 of the Iowa test, but the form is quite new.

^In Henman, et al., op. cit»* Chapter VI. 2Pereival M. Symonds* "A Foreign Language Prognosis Test", Teachers College Record, op. cit.* pp. 540-656.

2 0

A brief paragraph in Esperanto is given, and directly beneath it is placed a direct translation in English* Since the pupil talcing the test uses the English translation to interpret the Esperanto, the constructions in the English version are direct translations of the Esperanto, even though often clumsy and awkward#1 The test proper consists of a list of thirty English words from the passage, each followed by five choices in Esperanto#

Several measures of linguistic

ability may enter into success here# English vocabulary knowledge, aware­ ness of similar word-roots, ete# fast $ Sentence translation*— Esperanto to English*

An alphabet*

ical Esperanto-English vocabulary of twenty-seven words is given*

The test

consists of twenty-five items, in each of which an Esperanto sentence Is given, followed by four English sentences, one of which correctly trans­ lates it*

After each group of five items, additional Esperanto grammar

rules are given which must be applied in solving the items thereafter# This test is thought to measure both vocabulary ability and the ability to interpret inflected forms# Test 4 Related Words# FA-1, part $#

This test is taken directly from the Iowa

Symonds ohose what he considered to be the easiest twenty-

five of the original forty items, and arranged them in the order of their difficulty*

The criticisms offered of FA-1, Part 2 earlier in this chap­

ter apply equally here#2

Form B» Test 1 Word Translation— Esperanto to English. comparable to Test 2 in Form A*

1 Ibid#,

pp* 540-566*

2Cf* ante# p# 16.

This test It

Again an Esperanto paragraph and its

English translation aro given, but this time the test consists of Espe­ ranto words, and English choices.

The skill being tested is presumably

the same as in Form A, tost 2* tost 2 Artificial Language* this test was originally constructed by Stuart C* Dodd, formerly of Princeton University# it was submitted by 6 . C* Brigham for use in the intelligence test for eelleges prepared by L# L* Thurstone and sponsored by the American Council of Education. fen root words are given in an artificial language with their English translations.

Buies are given for forming plurals, changing tenses, form,

lag one part of speech from

another*

In the test, twenty sentencesare

given, half of them in English, and half

in the artificial language. The

student is asked to write the translation for each sentence. fhis is primarily a test of ability to follow certain rules regarding inflection* It also implies ability to understand certain grammatical terms, and the language sense necessary to earry out the rules .2 feet 3 Sentence translation--English to Esperanto, is comparable to test 5, Form A*

fhis test

Essentially the same vocabulary is used,

but here the items consist of sentences in English and choices in Esperanto* The Items are agcim made increasingly difficult by the introduction of new grammar rules throughout the test* Test 4 Formation of Parts of Speech la English#.. -This was prob­ ably suggested by Part 1-6 of the Iowa test.' ijiexample* tfoun

1.

occupy

*(*. . *

.)* .

The student is to write "occupation* or some’simiiar noun formed from the verb "occupy*, There are fifty such items. The validities reported by Symonds in the article in the Teachers

^Symonds, og. pit., p* 644. 2Lo o . ©it.

College Record were obtained from date fro® eleven high schools and for groups of French, Spanish, or Latin students ranging in size fro® 18 to 134,

In this experiment, Form A correlated with achievement criteria in

a range of coefficients from ,34 to ,7®, cient to he ,60,

For Form

8

Symonds found the mean coeffi­

the range was *38 to ,73, the mean being ,61,

For the combination of both forms, the range was ,71,

.68

to *78, the mean being

The averaging of coefficients of correlation is a dubious policy,

especially when they have been obtained for groups widely varying in size. For example, with Form A* the highest r of ,79 was obtained for only eight­ een oases, while for the largest group, 107 eases, the r was only *64, Probable errors are not given for the r*s in this study, but they are likely to be fairly high in view of the small numbers of cases. Since they are available, it may be well to cite some ef the mere recent studies In which the Symonds tests were used,

In 1938, Richardson*

administered Forms A and B to about 180 high school freshmen who took at least one semester ef a foreign language.

He found a correlation of .64

i *046 between percentile rankings on the combined prognosis test and sem­ ester grades,

Sister Vergil Michel^ gave both forms to German classes in

three St, Paul, Minnesota, high schools. the experiment*

One hundred five students finished

Her criteria of achievement were teachers * grades for the

first semester, and the Columbia Research Bureau German test*

All of her

validity coefficients were low, the highest of sere-order being .464, and the multiple correlations were net mueh higher*

Maronpet* gave both forms

% • D. Richardson, "Discovering Aptitude for the Modern Languages «n Modern Language Journal, XVIIIj 3 (December, 1933}, pp. 160-170, Sister Vergil Michel, "Prognosis in German#* Modern Language Journal, XXj 8 (February, 1936), pp# 876-87# — ^Raymond p. Maronpot, "Discovering and Salvaging Modern Language Risks." Modern Language Journal, X X H I (May, 1939), pp, 698-98.

t© 170 high school pupils, to find that the test scores correlated .704 with yearly grades in beginning language.

The eerrelation between intel­

ligence test scores and the same grades was .273, while that of grades and general scholastic average wap *612«. Hone of Maronpot's subjects had taken any previous language, and he suggests that this fact may have been an. in­ fluence for higher correlations.

His conclusion is reasonable since, in

theory, the mere a group is unseleeted, the more possible it is to obtain high validity coefficients for it. h m i A » G m , m m m m m LAHGTJAGBI PROGNOSIS TEST, FCSM A, By lias a. huria and Jacob S. M e a n s . Tonkers-on-Hudson, Hew York, World Book Company, 1930, This test is designed for prediction in Romance Languages, and is especially intended for use at the high school level. necessary for its administration is

86

minutes.

The total time

The authors describe it

as fellowst The teat eonsiota chiefly of several simple lessons cover­ ing fundamental principles, with a test on each lesson. It ia based on the theory that to determine hew well one can do a job, it is best to let him try it ... The study of a m o d e m language involves (1) the ability te relate the words of the language with derived English words and vice versa, (2 ) the ability te memorise and recall foreign lan­ guage words and their meanings, (3) the appreciation of inflections corresponding to changes in gender, number, person, and the like, and the ability to learn and apply this knowledge, (4) the ap­ preciation of differences in usage and the ability to learn and employ the appropriate forms, and (5 ) the ability to express in terms of the foreign language a thought expressed in English, and vice versa.* Such are the points that this test was to ©ever.

There are eleven parts

to the test, entitled Test A, Test B, and Lesson-Tests 1 through 9. Test A consists of a list of fifteen Spanish words with their English equivalents.

For eaoh, the student is directed te ehoose a

^Manual of Directions, pp, 2-3.

related English word from a second list of twenty choices.

For example,

given "cstudiar te study* the student chooses from the second list the word "studious", Test B also deals with derivitives,

A list of twenty French words

and their English meanings are given, and the student is asked to supply an English word which resembles the French word in spelling and meaning*

Given

"dormer (to give)® the student may write "donate*^ "doner®, etc* In eaeh of the remaining parts, a short lessen In Spanish or French grammar is given with vocabulary, rules, and examples,* then the page is turned at a time signal and a test ever that lessen fellows.

The student

may ordinarily leek bask at the lesson while talcing the test if he likes* The subject matter of the tcsson-Tests is as fellows t Test 1, separating Spanish verbs from their infinitive endings $ Test 2, the Inflection of -er verbs in the present tensef Test 3, the gender and number of Spanish nouns as identified from endings j Test 4, the number of nouns, using more dif­ ficult material! Test 3, the translation of simple sentences from English into Spanishf Test

6,

the idiomatic usage of verbs ear, estar, hacer, tcnerf

Test 7, the French article and its contractions with de and £| Test

8,

French

possessive adjectives and pronounsi Test 9, the ability to memorise vocab­ ulary, with twenty English and Spanish words to be translated from one lan­ guage into the ether* The principle of this test is on the whole different from any of the previous ones*

Concerning its validity, the authors report in the

Manual of Directions a multiple correlation between the prognosis test scores and achievement test scores of *6 8 . This was for an earlier form of the

and

8,

All of the Lessons deal with Spanish grammar exeept Lessons 7 which deal with French,

test, and was based on the records of 110 French pupils in a Heir York City high school.

On the baeis of this experiment the test was revised and

lengthened. There is little experimental evidence concerning the revised LuriaOrleans test, and the writer found none at the college level,

HAulfers*

tried it as a prediction basis for junior high school Spanish grades.

From

the records of 461 cases from Long Beach, California junior high schools, he reported the following correlations between Luria-Orleans test scores and various criteria» Spanish Reading test • « Spanish Vocabulary test Spanish Grammar test « « Total Achievement test , Spanish Marks

, * • • • » * , • • « , , « • , , « • •

,41 *35 ,54 ,31 ,62

A multiple correlation between the prognosis test scores and the combina­ tion of teachers* grades with total achievement test scores yielded a coef­ ficient of ,6026* lOaulfers concluded that the test was not testing "language talent" to any appreciable extent, but he addedi “The predictive validity of the prognosis test Is sufficiently high to warrant its use for group prediction In junior high school Spanish above the eighth grade,* Another experiment in which the Luria-Orleans test was used was carried out by Youag*^

In September, 1981, she gave the test to about 100

high school French pupils.

Her data are not expressed in correlation coef­

ficients, and her probability tables are difficult to evaluate briefly and

Valter Vincent Kaulfers, The Forecasting Efficiency of Current Bases for Prognosis in junior High School Boginning Spanish, unpublished Soet'orvs’"dlssStMon, Leland liSferd j M b r m ^ e r sf b y, 1988• 881 pp, 2Josephine A, Young, Deriving Practical Instruments for Predicting Success in High School French, lunpubiished ^ ihes is, TJrdLversity of H t t s W i J T / T ^ T 3 5 ”pp"-----

meaningfully.

Her own conclusions as to the best bases for prognosis

according to her experiment are as f©1 loess (1 ) teacher ratings are the best basis, (2) English marks are almost as good as teacher ratings, (8 ) intelligence test scores are lees indicative, (4) the prognosis test was the poorest basis for prediction. In the light of these experiments, it would seem that the value of the Luria-Orleans test is yet to be established* A LANGUAGE APTITUDE TEST, Prepared by T, Sunt, F* 0, Wallace, S* Doran, K» C, Buynitzky, 1* B* Schwarz. Washington, D,0.t Center for psychological Service, Georg© Washington university, 1929, Experimental data concerning this test are relatively few*

Its

administration time is something over forty minutes, and it is made up of ten short tests.

During the first eight minutes* the students study the

material on a sheet which contains (1) a difficult paragraph in English of about 273 words, four minutes allowed, (2) a twenty-four word EsperantoEnglish vocabulary, (3) some grammar rules In Esperanto, chiefly concerned with the use of prefixes and suffixes*

Thirty-two minutes are allowed for

taking the test* In Test 1, the student is to recognize similarity between the vowel sounds of different &iglish words*

Test 2 gives examples of three

prepositions in Esperanto meaning "of" in English* ce, kun, and peri and four meaning "with"* pri, da, el, de»

The student then reads fifteen

English sentences containing "of" or "with", and writes the oorreet Espe­ ranto preposition for each.

Test 3 is intended to measure the student's

memory of the Esperanto vocabulary studied before beginning the test* The student must comprehend ten Esperanto sentences, and indicate whether a possible or an impossible situation is described*

Test 4 also depends

on memory of the previously studied material, that concerning prefixes and suffixes In Esperanto* ing

is onei

There are fifteen items, of which the follow­

fQ «

easy 9 facile; difficulty (1 ) facilaso (2 ) faeilin© (S) facilujo (4) malfacila Test 3 consists of ten statements measuring comprehension of the English paragraph previously read by the student* false*

Test

6*

They are to be marked true or

English Vocabulary, is a list of forty pairs of words*

The student indicates for each pair whether the two words have the same or the opposite meaning*

In Test 7, the student reads twenty English

sentences and decides whether or not each is grammatically correct* Test

8

arc twenty English words*

In

The student's knowledge of accent is

determined by his ability to indicate the stressed syllable of each*

in

Test 9, three rules are given for word order of sentences* different from normal English order* for example* "The sentence order must be* Subjectindirect object— direot object— verb*** A group of fifteen English sen­ tences follow* and the student indicates whether each is correct according te rule*

Test 10 has the longest time allotment* seven minutes* and is

entitled "Use of Language Rules*® language technique*

It is an application of the artificial

Vocabulary is given* using Greek words spelled in the

Roman alphabet, and a number of grammar rules*

Ten sentences in this lan­

guage* with English translations are presented* and the student decides whether each sentence is correctly translated* Ho evidence concerning the validity of the test ie available from its authors*

The writer has found only one prognosis study in which

the George Washington test was used*

In it* Matheus* used as his subjects

103 beginning French, Spanish* and German students at the West Virginia State College*

Be reported a correlation of *414 it *054 between the test

i John F* Matheue, "Correlation Between Psychological Test Scores* Language Aptitude Test Scores* and Semester Grades*® Modern Language Journal* XXII* 2 (November, 1937)* pp* 104-106*

scores and semester grades*

This is discouragingly low, far the test has

a very interesting selection of material*

Possibly the combining of

students of various languages into one group may have lowered the corre­ lation*

It may be that the brevity of the parts and the methods of test­

ing tend to defeat the purpose.

There are only ten true false items in

each of three of the most difficult parts* Tests 3* 5* and 10*

This small

number of items may be inadequate to show the student*s real ability* espe­ cially since the time allowed is very short*

Tests 1 and 3 concern matters

of pronunciation and accent so peouliar to English that they may have little transfer to a foreign language*

Furthermore, it may be that pro­

nunciation seldom plays a major part in determining a student*s grade in beginning language* or at least that English pronunciation ability is an unreliable basis of prediction*^ MIAMI U K a m © E PROGNOSIS t e s t (SPANISH), K* Jones* pew n*j 1935*

By R. J* Van Tassel and Willis

This forty-one minute test was considered by Henman2 to be * a highly promising addition to the list of prognosis tests*w A brief des­ cription of it follows* Grammar Test A is a group of ten English sentences •

The student

rewrites each* mating nouns end pronouns plural* and putting verbs in the past tense*

Vocabulary Test part A is a list of twenty-five Spanish words*

The student studies them for ten minutes in preparation for a recognition test later*

Grammar Test B is of the completion type* and measures the

*The unreliable Handsohin and Wilkins tests* of. ante* pp* 12-13^ gave considerable weight to the pronunciation element* 2V* A* 0* Henmen, "Recent Developments in the Construction* Evaluation* and Use of Tests in Modern Foreign Languages *M In Algernon Coleman* Experiments and Studies in Modern Language Teaching* Chicago t University of dhieago^ress* 1$$4* Pp* 191^10.

student's acquaintance with essential grammatical terminology, such as "definite article", "possessive adjective", etc*

In a Sentence Structure

Test* the student examines thirteen English sentences* identifies each as simple, complex* eompound-complex, or incomplete, and underlines all de­ pendent clauses*

A Word Meaning Test presents twenty Spanish words* each

followed by four English words* English equivalent*

The student decides which is the correct

An examples

%♦*# tarde

1* temple

2,

late 3* sad 4* bald"

In the Farts of Speech Test* the student is given thirty words used in context* and he matches each with the correct response from a list of the eight parts of speech*

For a Lesson in Spanish Grammar* the student is

given a simple rule for distinguishing two verbs* toner and faaber* mean­ ing "to have"*

He is given the first and third persons singular and

plural of these verbs*

Eight English sentences using the verb "have"

follow* and the student must supply the correct Spanish equivalent, Vocabulary Test part S presents again the twenty-five Spanish words studied in Part A*

The student is given eight minutes in which to write

the English equivalents* The table used by Benmon* to report the data on this test is reproduced here*

These results justify Henmon's comment on the test*

and it is regrettable that no further studies seem to have been made with it*

However, it is likely that it will be revised and further in­

vestigated soon* 2

Validity coefficients of this magnitude at the college

*Ibid#, p*

201*

% h e following is an excerpt from a letter dated Oct, 4* 1941, received by the writer from Prof* Willis K, Jones# "we have not used this test for three or four years and all the old copies are gone* we did plan to revise it and have most of the work done* but the death of Dr* Van Tassel and igy own work with AATS and other organisations stopped the work* We may get at it with a new psychologist sometime this year,"

level are unusual*

Correlations between First Semester Spanish Grades and Miami Test Scores Miami U« (H * 123)

Test Grammar Test A Grammar Test B Sentence Structure Test Word Meaning Test parts of Speech Test Lesson in Spanish Grammar Vocabulary Memory Test Total Score

•660 *424 •639 *662 •420 .464 *592 •632

Hamilton H*S* (N S 41) .701 .615 *324 •646 *626 *516 *411 .745

These* then* are the main efforts to produce foreign language prognosis tests*

Mention might be made alee of the Barry~Rice Prognostic

Language Test for Spanish* by May D* Barry and George A* Rice,

The latter

prepared a report for the Committee publication on prognosis* in whioh he discussed early experiments with the test, and announced that it would be considerably revised and published*

The present writer has been unable to

find any further notice of results obtained from it* Other Studies in Prognosis Since the Committee Report m i t e r V# TC&ulfers has made many studies In language prognosis, most of them dealing with lower high school levels*®

In one article8 he

surveyed previous prognosis Investigations, and pointed out the wide variety of results, the lack of uniformity of purpose and treatment which characterises many of them, making no meaningful comparison possible*

In

^Henmon et al», op* cit*. Chap* V. ®S©e MHauliers* in Bibliography, falter V* KAulfers, "Present Status of Prognosis in Foreign Lan* guages*" School Review, XXXIX5 6 (October, 1931), pp. 335*696*

the same study he summarized the b&sic criteria for a prognosis study* in­ sisting on the following points * (1 ) an adequate sampling of the population* (2) the constancy ©f extrinsic factors* (3) a concise definition of terms* (4) Mthe numerical expressions of relation should he computed from an anterior-posterior alignment of the prediction and achievement factors in correlation*** (5) scientific measurement— objective Instruments* relia­ bility and validity coefficients* (6 ) constancy of the population— com­ parison must be to data in the same class groups* (7) empirical approacheach language must be treated separately* A good example of K&ulfers* thorough work is his Doctor's disser­ tation*^ referred to above in connection with the Luria-Orleans test*

The

study is concerned only with prognosis in Spanish at the junior high school level* but some of his findings should be of value at the college level* He found intelligence test scores hardly adequate for group prediction* The English talents found to correlate highest with Spanish achievement were those relating to vocabulary* spelling* and reading*

He points out

that no basis nor combination of bases is sufficient for the elimination of pupils before they begin their study* Brock*® with 255 high school Spanish students* investigated the subject of prediction from the bases of chronological age* mental age* intelligence tests* and various English abilities*

The most significant

relationship found in his study m s between spelling ability and Spanish

*For example* studies reporting the correlation between English marks and foreign language marks for courses taken at the some time have little prognosis value* ^Walter V* laulfers* The Forecasting Efficiency of Current Bases*•** op* clt* ^Raymond C« Brook* An Experimental Evaluation of Various Bases for Prognosis in Spanish* Unpublished Aster's thesis.'Tjnlversity of Southern California, 1953, 106 pp.

achievement* Canty* tried to isolate causes of suoeese and failure in high eohool language by a thorough study of twenty-five pupils whose sueeess or failure was outstanding*

Her results were mainly negative* and she

concluded that the abilities* likes* and dislikes of students are too diverse to be meaningful.

In this connection it might be well te mention

the amusing report of Willis K. donee*2

He asked a group of beginning

language students to signify which of the following objectives they wished to attain from their studyg (1 ) ability to read* (2 ) ability te talkf (3) a cultural appreciation*

These who chose "culture” made outstand­

ingly low grades* Tallent8 reported a study made at the university of Tennessee between 1230 and 1936*

The following coefficients between language grades

and other variables were found* Intelligence test scores $ English Placement scoresi English Grades!

*211

*487 *558

St has been reported that a new study of foreign language prog­ nosis will be published by Henman in 1942**

Efforts of the present writer

to secure further information about the experiment have been unsuccessful*

The Most promising Prognosis Material The weight of the evidence of this chapter serves to indicate that *&aura M* Canty* Twenty-five Case Studies of Outstanding Successes and Failures in French Classes* Unpublished Master7®' thesis* How Jersey ^tate ^oaoiiers College at Montclair, 1986* 62 pp* 8

2Willis K* Jones* "Objectives as a prognosis Test** Hlspania* XVII* (October* 1984)* pp* 286-89.

8Emma Huth gnsor Tallent* "Three Coefficients of Correlation that Concern Modern Foreign languages** Modern Language Journal* XXII; 8 (May* 1988)* pp* 691-94. ^George F# Zook* "The president's Annual Report*" Record* XXI} 8 (July, 1940), pp. 272-78.

Educational

1*

teste specifically designed for prognosis have been the most efficient prediction bases of future success in language study*

Previous school

records ere net comparable for students from different schools*

previous

language success is net obtainable for all students and here again success Is not meaningfully comparable*

i \ Tharp has sheen that after a month in

beginning language# sectioning may be dene effectively on the basis of objective achievement tests#

A good prognosis test should make effi­

cient sectioning possible from the very beginning* From the analysis of the five meet widely used existing prog* nosis tests# the writer has attempted to rate the elements in their con­ struction, indicating the materials and methods most likely to be of value for a new test*

This task was greatly simplified whenever existing ob­

jective evidence showed the relative efficiency of the various parts* In ether eases# the rating was made by comparison with similar tests for which the efficiency is known* and as a last recourse* by the subjective opinion of the present writer*

These ratings were made from a consider*

ation of the fundamental principle of each test* aside from the efficiency or desirability of the format* ratings*

fable

1

presents the results of these

The subjective nature of these ratings may fee criticised* but

in general the analysis supports each rating* It will be noted that there is overlapping in the subject matter of the tests considered valuable te prognosis (ratings 1 and 2)«

This

subject matter seems to fall roughly into three divisionst (1 ) elements which measure a student's knowledge of the structure of the vernacular* 1

«_ J* B. Tharp* "How Shall We Section Beginning Foreign Language Classes7" OgL* * pp* 453-449*

er*>^ e.l-

Table 1 Bating of Parts of Five Most Prominent Existing Prognosis Tests (A rating of wl** Is given to material considered superior; ”2 ” indicates that the material has value for prognosis; **3” is given to material of questionable value; and *4* means that the material is probably not effective)

Iowa Test

Luria-Orleans Test

Part

Test

Bating

« # • 1 * • ♦ 2 3 • * S 4 * # • 4

1 2

s Test

Bating

A • # # # 1 3 • • # • 2 Lessen 1»6 • • # 1 7,8 * * . 2 9 # # * « 2

Form A Test Bating 0# Washington Test • • 3 • 4 * 1 2

# * * •

•1 # 3 # Z * Z

Test 1 # S # 4 • 5 « 6 # 7 # 3 « 9 * 10 • 2

Form B Test Bating 1 2 $ 4

* * * • #' • # «

#3 # 4 • 2 * 1

Bating * • # • * # • • *' • • • * * • • # • ##

3 2 3 2 3 2 1 S 2 2

Miami Test grammar A « • Grammar B . • Sent# Struct# Word Meaning# Parts Speech* Span# Lesson# Voo. Meaning#

in matters "which are common t© other l a n g u a g e s (2 ) elements which measure ability te master linguistic functions somewhat foreign to the vernacular but common to other languages;® (3) elements measuring the ability te derive the thought of foreign words by a shrewd inference based on their relation to the vernacular#® It may be observed# however# that the three types of subject matter described above are not olearly distinguishable# because all have eertain common elements#

Such factors as knowledge of grammatical terminology#

vocabulary comprehension ability# and previous foreign language experience might influence all of them#

It was net the purpose of this study to de­

vise a diagnostic test which would point out the specific deficiencies of weak students. Such a test should be constructed for a particular lan­ guage and teaching method#

The material sought here should# when combined

into a test# indicate which students have shortcomings and require diag­ nosis*

*Examples are* Iowa, fart 1; Symonds# Form A# Test 1# Form B# Test 4f George Washington, Tests 6 and 7; Miami Grammar Test A# and Sentence Structure* ^Examples are* Luria-Orleans, Tests 1-8; Symonds Artificial Language; G* Washington Use of Language Buies# Word Order# Meaning of Prepositions# and Use of Prefixes and Suffixes# ^Examples are* Iowa Inference (Part 2); Miami word Meaning; Luria-Orleans Derivation, A and S; Symonds Belated Words*

CHAPTER XII THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NSW FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGNOSIS TEST

The ehief purpose of this study was the production of a new language prognosis test te be used in replacement of the original Iowa Foreign Language Aptitude Test# FA-1 in the Iowa Placement Examinations series#

Material for the new test was chosen with reference to the anal­

ysis of other prognosis tests and experiments#

The three types of promis­

ing test material# as described in the latter part of the preceding chapter, were to be included in the new test# one part being devoted to each#

These

parts were named) English Grammar, Language Inference, and language Con­ struction#

This chapter will discuss in detail the type of material used

in each part# the way this material was selected# the amount of space and time given it in the test# and the method used in testing it#

A

copy of this test may be seen by turning to the Appendix* page 125 •

Part 1* The English Grammar Test* Two sources were used for the selection of the material for Part It grammar sections In other prognosis tests# and manuals of English gram­ mar in current use as college and high school texts#

The matter consider­

ed most promising was that which measured the simplest essentials of Eng­ lish grammar and which concerned points closely related to grammar con­ cepts used in the teaching of the more common foreign languages# Section A of the grammar test was designed to measure the stu­ dent *s knowledge of elementary sentence construction.

For this purpose

a four-alternative* multiple choice test was prepared# using eight simple and two complex English sentences#

For eaeh of the simple sentences, and

for each clause of the complex sentences* the student was asked to designate

the subject and the verb*

The sentences were written so as to make use

of the different word order schemes common to English and to certain foreign languages, to make use of nouns, pronouns, and gerunds as subjects, and te use various forms of verbss simple and compound tenses, progressive tenses, active and passive voice*

\,

The student was to recognise these

elements in a variety of sentence situations.

In the complex sentences he

was to differentiate between independent and dependent clauses*

This see-*

tion contained twenty-four items and made up about one third of the first part, Section B was constructed to measure the student *s ability te recognise the grammatical function of individual words when used in con­ text,

twenty sentences were presented, each containing an italicised

word.

The student was instructed to match each word with the part of

speech it represented, choosing the correct number from a list of parts of speech.

Seven parts of speech were tested, the Interjection being

eliminated as not of sufficient importance.

Here again, variety was

introduced by using collective and abstraot nouns, transitive and in­ transitive verbs, personal and relative pronouns, descriptive and limit­ ing adjectives, adverbs in differing functions, etc.

Previous knowledge

of these elementary concepts should be of value to the student beginning a foreign language under almost any system of teaching. Section C deals with one individual part of speech, the verb, A student can do little toward mastery of a foreign language without learn­ ing the formation and use of verb tenses.

If he is well acquainted with

verb usage in his own language, he should be better prepared for his study of any of the most widely taught European languages.

In Section C, twenty

sentences were presented, each containing an italicised verb form to be

38 matched from a list of numbered verb forms.

In this -way was tested, from

the recognition standpoint, the student’s knowledge of simple and compound tenses, of present and past participles# and of the use of progressive tenses* Section D attempts to measure a knowledge of noun and pronoun objects, another of the essentials to success in a new language,

fen sen­

tences were presented, each containing an italicised noun or pronoun object. Using the matching technique, the student was asked to identify each ital­ icised word as the object of a preposition, the direct object cf a verb, or the indirect object of a verb. A considerably different choice of English grammar material might have been used for this part, perhaps with equal justification.

As an

attempt to measure some of the most fundamental concepts of English gram­ mar, these points were considered adequate,

part

1

filled three pages of

the sim page test, and was allotted fifteen minutes of the total time of forty-seven minutes.

part 2, The language Inference lest. fart

2,

consisting of thirty-five items and requiring twelve min­

utes, was designed to measure a student’s ability to comprehend simple sen­ tences In a language unfamiliar to him but related to his own tongue.

Here

English vocabulary knowledge was tested, and certain other skills such as ability to make shrewd linguistic guesses, and to infer the complete thought of a sentence when vocabulary knowledge gave him but part of it , the idea for this test end much of the material in it came directly from -the two forms of the old Iowa Foreign language Aptitude Test. In part 2 of the old test, forty Esperanto sentences were present­ ed, each containing an italicised word. lation of each word.

The student wrote his English trans­

It has been seen that this part was adapted by Symonds

39 for his battery*

In Chapter II*3, several criticisms of it were mads, and

the high percent of defective items noted. ed to be fundamentally sound*

The principle of the test seem­

Other method® fen* testing the derivation or

relation of words have been mentioned earlier* sueh as the Symonds Word Translation Test, the Luria-Or leans Derivatives test* and the like.

The

method used in the Iowa test seemed preferable* because it offered a simple way to present foreign words in context*

The use of Esperanto m e desir­

able because its basic vocabulary is drawn from several European languages* offering a suffieient number of English cognates or near cognates in vari­ ous degree® of difficulty* In adapting the old material for a new test* the following pro­ cedure was used*

the m i t er resoored three hundred copies of each form of

the old teet, taken by student® of French* Spanish* and German in previous years* and tabulated all wrong answers made on each item in part 2* item® which were obviously too easy or defective were eliminated* analysis® was a useful guide*

Those HSwranan’s

Finally three incorrect choices were provid­

ed for each of the remaining statement® from the tabulated wrong answers* and the correct answer was added to make four-alternative items*

It was

expected that the increased objectivity of scoring would augment the value of this part* for the tabulation of wrong answers showed that many students had received unfair treatment under the completion system when their infer­ ences were correct but not in accord with the scorer's key*

To oite one

example* after the sentence 9ha birdoj fluges* a number of students wrote "flew** but only "fly* or "flies* was accepted*

Since no student had in­

formation about the formation of tenses in Esperanto* "flew" was an equally % f * ante* p« 16* 8 Iam«an*

eg>* oit*

40 acceptable answer*

Similar situations occurred frequently, accounting for

the defective condition of many items and reducing the efficiency of prog­ nosis* A large number of the eighty sentences were eliminated, and a fear new ones composed to make a total of thirty-five*

They were all selected

with care so that the word in italics could rarely be Identified without a elese examination of the sentence as a whole* It may be pointed out that students having previous experience in the study of foreign languages are likely te make higher scores on this part of the test because of vocabulary carry-over*

Such a feature is not

undesirable* because success in one language is thought to be a good In­ dication of success in another*

It was felt that the test should not favor

one language more than another*

The grammatical ability and knowledge it

requires are of the same importance in learning any of the common modern European languages, and Esperanto contains reot-werde from all of these languages*

part S, Language Construction* The third part of the new test was designed to measure the stu­ dent’s ability to work with a foreign vocabulary in a functional way, using unfamiliar grammar rules and applying them to sentences*

This gen­

eral principle was followed in several of the tests previously mentioned, e*g* the Artificial language test in the Symonds battery (Form B, Part 2), the Lurla-Or leans battery, Tests 1-9 using French and Spanish, the George Washington battery, Test 10, using Greek in the Homan alphabet* Since Esperanto was employed in one part of the new test, it seemed logical to make use of it again in this part. Esperanto is not a purely artificial language*

Its vocabulary is founded upon root-words

borrowed from the Romance, Germanic, and Slavic languages, for the most

41 part, but it has an extremely simplified grammatical system.

Designed for

rapid learning, related to German as well as to French and Spanish, and containing many words related in form and meaning to common English words, Esperanto was well suited to the purpose. The most promising model for the Language Construction test was the Artificial Language test, in which a fairly wide range of vocabulary and grammar concepts were covered in a minimum of space and time,

in the

Symonds battery* the test was not strictly objective, but called for the writing out of sentences both in English and In the artificial language. Since a very similar test was in use in the American Council Psychological Examination,* the latter was used as a model, its form being adapted te suit the Esperanto language and the Iowa placement Examinations • scoring system, Part $ was designed as a twenty minute test, requiring a oertaln amount of study before beginning work on the items themselves,

A veeab*

ulary list was given, containing four subject pronouns and the present tense of eight verbs.

A number of grammar rules were given, governing the

following pointsi the formation of nouns, adjectives, and adverbs from the roots of verbs, the formation of the past and future tenses of verbs, the formation of the plural of nouns and adjectives, the formation of the ob­ jective ease of nouns and pronouns, and the formation of possessive adjec­ tives from pronouns* The test items consisted of thirty-five three-word Esperanto sen* ^American Council on Education Psychological Examination for College Freshmen. Prepared by L. L, Thurstone and Thelma Gwinn Thurstone, published by the American Council on Education, Washington, D.C., 1937. Cf. Symonds* statement, quoted above. Chap. IX, p. 21.

48 tences with their English equivalents.

The student was asked to indicate

whether each Esperanto sentence was grammatically correct, by marking eaoh Esperanto word right or wrong according to the English equivalent. Each sentence thus furnished three items# maiding a total of one hundred five*

As a precaution against spuriously high scores from guessing, cor­

rection was made for eaoh score on this part by the subtraction of the number of wrong from the number of right answers* It will be seen that in parts

1

and 3 of this test# the assump­

tion is made that the students are acquainted with certain elementary grammatical terms#

The student who understands these terms well is

certainly favored by the test,

The assumption is probably justified,

for these reasons; (1 ) the terms are of the simplest; names of parts of speech# names of verb forms, names of oases (subjective, objective, posses­ sive)) (2 ) college students have been repeatedly exposed to these terms, both in elementary school and in high school) (3) students deficient in their knowledge of these terse are likely te be weak in ability te grasp linguistic principles and will probably have less sueoess in foreign lan­ guage study than will better grounded students.

Scoring System of Test. It is important that the mechanical port of a test be free from factors capable of lessening its validity.

As has been noted, such a sit­

uation m y have occurred in the Iowa PA-1 test.

The system adopted in the

new series of the Iowa Placement Examinations was followed in the construc­ tion of the new foreign language prognosis test.

All answers are recorded

by the cheeking of appropriate circles on a separate sheet torn from the test itself.

This method, which has gained favor among educational psy­

chologists in recent years, has the advantage of ease of seoring and reduces scoring errors to a minimum.

Apparently the use of an answer sheet is

learned fey students as easily as any ether system.

The scoring sheet Is

designed so that the place for each response is clearly indicated*

Per­

haps the chief inconvenience to the student is the necessity of working with two separate pages at the ease time*

At any rate* this system is

thought to fee a oensiderafele isq&rovement over that used In the former Iowa Placement Examinations series*

Suwsery* The new foreign language prognosis test designed for the Iowa series was constructed in three parts* each representing one of the three preferred types of testing material according to the analysis of previous tests*

these parts were as follows« 1* English Grammar* 15 minutes*

The four sections of this part

tested a knowledge of (a) sentence structure through ability to recognise subjects and verbs in dependent and independent clauses and to differentiate between the two types of clausest (fe) word functions through ability to identify parts of speech in context# (c) verb functions through ability to identify infinitives* participles* and verb tenses in context# (d) certain common objective forms* through the ability to differentiate between direct objects* indirect objects* and objects of a preposition* 2* Language Inference* 12 minutes*

Thirty-five Esperanto sentences*

chosen because of vocabulary relation to English* were presented* each sen­ tence having one word italicised*

the student was asked to indicate which

of four English choices correctly translated the italicised word.

This

part was expected to measure the ability of a student to profit by his knowledge of English vocabulary and his "linguistic sense" in the compre­ hension of foreign language sentences*

44 S* Language Construction, 20 minutes*

Ability to learn and

work efficiently with the vocabulary and grammar rules of a foreign lan­ guage was measured here*

Given the essential rules and vocabulary, the

student examined thirty-five three-word Esperanto sentences to determine whether they translated correctly the accompanying English equivalents* The answer sheet system used in the new test wae thought to be a considerable improvement ever the less objective completion method found in the old test.

CHAPTER 17 ADMINISTRATION, EVALUATION, AND REVISION OP THE EXPERIMENTAL EDITION

Administration of Test In September, 1940, the experimental edition of the new prog­ nosis test ees administered to ever a thousand beginning students in French, Spanish, and German at the State university of Iowa* dropped out in the following months*

Seme students

Of those receiving a grade for the

semester, the actual number in each language was as fellows a French, 1631 Spanish, 594j German* 205* The test was administered before any language instruction had begun*

Since the timing of the test had been set subjectively, it was

decided to give one group unlimited time*

Accordingly, the French clas­

ses were assembled in one auditorium, given the test papers, and told to work rapidly but carefully and to finish each part of the test*

They were

asked to record on the sowing sheet the time required for each section of the test, according to time indications made each minute on a black­ board at the front of the room*

The Spanish and German classes took the

test during regular class periods, the administrators being their regular Instructors*

The instructors were not given any specific directions for

its administration other than those on the test booklets* The scores made on the test by students in each language group were converted to percentile ranks*

These ranks were used in the French

and Spanish departments as a basis for sectioning the students into abil­ ity groups, the number and quality of the sections depending on the number of classes meeting at any particular hour*

The preferred system was to

have about five ability levels meeting at the same time*

Methods of Instruction and Measurement The new prognosis test was constructed without intent to favor any system of foreign language teaching or any one foreign language*

The

English Grammar and Language Construction parts may relate more closely to the teaching of grammar or translation} the Inference part was designed to measure a kind of skill especially valuable when a reading method is used*

However* practically all methods do make use of grammar knowledge,

translation ability, and reading ability*

This is especially true at the

college level and in first semester courses*

As has been suggested before,

the main value of a prognosis test is to indleate probable first semester achievement*

After one semester, a valid achievement test is probably

a better basis for prediction*

Theoretically, the new prognosis test

should be of about equal value for beginning classes of any modern for­ eign language, sad under any teaching system offering a reliable criterion of achievement*

Exception would have to be made in the case of systems

giving considerable weight to such objectives as pronunciation ability or a knowledge of the foreign country’s culture*

The value of a prognosis

test is always limited, however, by the value of the achievement criterion with which its results are compared#

Therefore, the teaching Bystems and

measurement methods used in the three language groups on which this ex­ periment is based, will be next discussed* French* In the French classes, taught under a reading method, the pri­ mary objective is to develop the student’s ability to read, accurately and rapidly, ordinary unsimplifled French premie in the course of two years of study#

In the first semester, grammar and vocabulary are taught

inductively through controlled repetition of words and constructions in the graded reading texts, supplemented by prepared exercises and dally

instructional tests*

A schedule of departmental examinations is admin­

istered to all students during the semester*

These tests are all objective,

the multiple-choice and matching types being most common* and eever reading-eomg>reheaeion* vocabulary and idioms, grammatical material such as verbs and pronouns, and pronunciation*

A two hour final examination of similar

type and content is given at the end of the semester*

The final grades

are made from a distribution of composite scares based on approximately the following weightings* departmental examinations, one half} final exam­ ination, one third} outside reading, pronunciation, and daily class per­ formance, one sixth*

This last category may be given more weight to deter­

mine the mark of the student whose composite score falls between two grade levels*

Spanish* The aims and methods of the Spanish department in the first sem­ ester are similar to those described for the French department*

The main

teaching objectiw* is to develop the student’s reading ability through the use of progressively mere difficult reading material, In which grammar con­ cepts and vocabulary are taught by the repetition of words and constructions* Syllabus material is a supplementary aid to grammar and vocabulary learning* A secondary objective is the development of the abilities of understanding and speaking Spanish, but this applies mainly to superior class sections* Course grades are determined on the following basis* a two hour, objective final examination given to all classes contributes one third* a composite of scores on objective departmental examinations given In the course of the semester contributes one third* and the instructor’s estimate of the student’s daily work and general ability, one third#

The quality and

quantity of his outside reading performance, judged from his scores on

objective content tests, serves to determine which of two grades the border-line student shall receive*

German# The aims of instruction in the German department during the first year may be listed as follows* (1 ) to give a satisfactory grammatical back­ ground for the study of German* (2) to build up a basic vocabulary of about eight hundred words} (3) to develop the ability to pronounce German cor­ rectly and to use and understand simple sentences of spoken German} and 1T*bhe Xraeriean arS canadian Committees on Modern Languages, Vol. XIV. New York* The Macmillan Company, 1029# 182 pp* , "Recent Developments in the Construction, Evaluation, and Use of Tests in Modern Foreign Languages*" In A* Coleman, editor, Bxperl* moats and Studies in Modern Language Teaching* Chicago* The U H * w r s i t y ^ f ckieago Press, 1934* Pp* i9^*218. Developments in the , "Recent kchtopiv v * v o d « p B t u i * jlu w * Study aof * Modern a n w a r n fForeign Language iU H % u»g ''"""Problems*" Modern Language Journal, XIX, 3 (December. 1984), pp* 187*801*"“ Jones, Willis Kfcapp, "Objectives as a Prognosis Test*" (October, 1984), pp* 288*89*

Hiepania# XVII, 8

Jordan, J* ST., "prognosis in Foreign Language in Seoondary Schools." School Review, XXXIII, 7 (September, 1928), pp* 841*46* — — — Xaoman, James F*, A Statistical Analysis of the Foreign Language Aptitude Test of the~Iowa Placement ExamimHTons* 'tlhjpubiished Master*8 Thesis, State University of Iowa, jL9 S 9 * 33 pp* KAulfers, m i t e r V*, "Intelligence and Spanish Failures*" Modern Language Journal, XIII, (April, 1929), pp* 880*88. s, "Effect of the I Q on the Grades of ...... sign Languages." School and Society,

oneThousand Students of For* XXX (August, 1929), pp.163*64*

, "Value of English Marks in Predicting Foreign Language Achievement." ""ff"'rr""Sohool Review, XXXVII (September, 1929), pp* 841*46. , "Why Prognose in the Foreign Languages?" ------ tar# 4 (January, 1930), pp. 296-301*

~ri"n

Modern Language Journal,

, "Guessing Experiment in Foreign Language Prognosis*” Society, XXXII (October, 1930), pp. 558*38.

School and

, "Intelligence Factor in Foreign Language Achievement." XXXIX (January, 1931), pp. 42*48* , "Present Status of Prognosis in Foreign Languages*" 8 (October, 1931), pp. 588*96*

School Review,

School Review

jEXXIX,

, The Forecasting Efficiency of Current Bases for Prognosis in Junior llighSehool Beginning Spanish* Unpublished Dootorvs Dissertation, Leland sianfordjunior University, 1933. 381 pp.

Ruder, G* F., and M. W. Richardson, "The Theory of the Estimation of Test Reliability." Psychometric. II, 3 (September, 1937), pp. 151*60. Lindquist, S. F., Statistioal Analysis in Educational Research. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1946. “TF66 pp. "

Boston?

Maronpot, Raymond T., "Teaching and Testing Vocabulary on a Oae*Language Language Journal, XIV, 7 (April, 1930), pp. 554-60. , "Discovering and Salvaging Modern Language Risks.* guage Journal, XXIII (May, 1939), pp, 595*98.

Modern Lan­

Matheus, John F.f "Correlations Between Psychological Test Scores, Language Aptitude Test Scores, and Semester Grades." Modern Language Journal, XXII, 2 (November, 1937), pp. 104*106. ~ “ Monroe, Walter S. and Max D. Engelhart, The Scientific Study of Educational Problems. Heir York? The Macmillan Company, 19&6. ¥6& pp."" Odell, Charles W., Predicting the Scholastic Success of College Freshmen. Bulletin of ihe Bureau of Educational Researeh, Vniveraity of Illinois, No, 37, 1927. 54 pp. Oxley, Ruth, "Comparative Study of the Intelligence of Beginners in Senior High School Foreign Language." School and Society, XXXIII (May, 1931), pp. 695*96. — — , Parker, Mrs. Jessie Allen, "Prognosis in Modern Language Study." Journal, XIV (January, 1981), pp. 9*14.

High School

Riee, George A*, "A Study of Achievement in French and Spanish in Junior and Senior High School, with Consideration of Some of the Factors that Condition Achievement." In Studies in Modern Language Teaching, Publications of the American and tffiOTan^fTo® gouges. Vol. XVII. New York? The Macmillan Company, 1930. Pp. 455*71. Richardson, H. P., "Discovering Aptitude for the Modern Language Journal, XVIII, 5 (December, 1935), pp. Sister Vergil Michel, "prognosis in German." (February, 1936), pp. 275*87.

Languages."Modern 160*70.

Modern Language Journal, XX, 5

Spoerl, Dorothy Tilden, "A Study of Some of the Possible Factors involved in Foreign Language Learning." Modern Language Journal, XXIII (March, 1980), pp. 428*31. Stoddard, George D«, Iowa Placement Examinations, university of Iowa Studies in Education, III, 2T (Firs¥’S©3PiesV No. ^ 9 ), 1925. 105 pp. Symonds, peroival M., "A Foreign Language Prognosis Test." Record, XXXI (larch, 1930), pp, 640*56.

Teachers College

Tallent, Baana R., "Three Coefficients of Correlation that Concern Modern Foreign Languages." Modern Language Journal, XXII, 8 (May, 1938), pp. 5 9 1 * 9 4 . ------------ 3--------

114 Tharp, James Burton, "Sectioning Classes in Romanes Languages." Language Journal, XII, 2 (fioveaber, 1927), pp. 96-114*

Modern

. "Host Shall We Section Beginning Foreign Language Classes?" Language Journal, XIII# 6 (Movernber. 1929), pp. 453-49.

Modem '

, "Sectioning Romance Classes at the University of Illinois." In Studies in Modern Language Teaching, Publications of the American and CanacOTan Committeeson Modern Languages, Vol. XVII. Hew Yorki The Macmillan Company, 1930. Pp. 562-432. Wagner, Kheie Earle, and Eunice Strable, "predicting Success and Failure in College Ancient and Modern Foreign Languages.* Modern Language Journal. XIX. 4 (January. 1935), pp. 285-93. Warshaw, J., "prognosis and the Open Boor." (January, 1931), pp. 233-61,

Modern Language Journal, XV, 4

Young, Josephine, A., Deriving Practical Instrumentsfor Predicting Success , in High School Freael^'^published Master*isThesis, Univer8ity of " ^ttsourgh7' Ift'Sf," ’ 41 pp. Kook, George F*, "The President's Annual Report." (July, 1940), pp. 259-334.

Educational Record, XXI, 3 -----------------

APPENDIX

±1G APPENDIX

Supplementary Tables Table 51 Means and Standard Deviations for Parts of the Aptitude Test and Grades for First Semester 1940**41 Distributions French(X63) Variable Apt* Test* Ft* 1 Sec* A Pt. 1 See* B Pt. 1 See* C pt* 1 See* D Total Pt* 1 Total Pt* 2 Total Pt* 5 Total Test 1st Best* Gr**

II

20*12 17*08 12*75 7.46 56.69 18*74 54*44 129*77 512*88

Spanish(594)

German(205)

S*D«

M

6.D*

M

S.D.

5*95 2*68 5*78 2.71 10*94 7.18 27.84 39.76 87*55

47.26 16*71 30*02 95.93 5*01

14*55 7*96 23.41 59*21 8.76

49.88 17.90 38.72 103*50 5*90

14.27 7.78 85.70 48*15 2*93

The numerical value used for French grades was the composite score of total points for the semester* The range was approximately 100*500* In Spanish and German, the five letter grades were evaluated as follows? A S 11, A- z 10, Bf & 9, and se on be Fd 2 0* A similar situation occurs in the next table* Table 52 Means and Standard Deviations for Parts of the Aptitude Test and Grades for Second Semester 1940*41 Distributions French (141) Variable Apt. Tests Part 1 Part 3 Part 3 Total 2nd Sen* Gr*

Spanish(498)

German(18Q)

U

S.D.

It

S.D.

M

S.D*

69.06 19*55 59*09 157.71 351*34

9*39 6*89 27*24 37*08 82*55

48.43 17.18 31.29 96*33 8*31

14*14 7*8® 23*45 38.45 3*09

50*87 18.02 36*99 105*38 6*56

13.87 7*77 25*30 41*27 3.03

Table 33 Means and Standard Deviations for First Semester 1941-42 Distributions (All Students who Took Aptitude Test and Received a Grade) French (130)____ Variable Sem. Prev* Lang, Apt* Pt* 1 Apt* Pt* 2 Apt# Pt* 3 Apt# Total Final Exam Grades*

Spanish (597)

German(178)

M

S.D.

M

S.D*

M

S.D.

2.50 15.15 33*38 43*82 94*38 123*57 5*06

2*35 6*31 23*72 17*49 40.84 26*50 3*18

2*97 15*46 54.00 46*75 96.47 107.50 5*31

2*84 6*60 22*12 16*61 39*83 25.50 2*99

3*19 16*65 40*13 49*42 106*35

5*24 7*11 24*04 15*52 41*47

5*62

3*24

*ln this and in the following table, all grades were evaluated from the eleven point basis described in the note to table 31« Table 34 Means and Standard Deviations for First Semester 1941*42 Distributions (Students who Took Qualifying J&camination# Aptitude Tost, and received a Final Grade) French(107) Variable Sem* Prev. Lang# Apt* Ft• 1 Apt* Pt* 2 Apt* Pt* 3 Apt# Total Composite Score H* S* Content Eng. Training Math# Apt* lead* Comp* Final Exam Final Grade

M 2*5 8 15*07 36*97 44*56 96*64 53*70 51*17 56*25 52*12 52*91 125*68 5*25

S.D, 2*39 6*37 23*81 . 16*78 40*67 18*88 19*58 19*81 18*07 18*95 24*39 3*11

Spanish(479)

German(155)

M

S.D*

M

S.D,

2,89 15*44 33*49 46*82 96*06 49*16 48*92 50*25 49*18 49*91 106*95 5*22

2*80 6*50 22*33 16*81 40*09 18*75 19*41 19.29 18*24 17.69 25*66 2*91

3.21 16*27 39*63 49*48 106*56 66*83 57.37 62*90 68*55 54*23

3*31 7*20 23*95 15*49 41*51 19*69 19*41 18*09 19*13 19*24

6*63

3*30

1 1 8

Table 36 Summary of Steps in Item Analysis Shoeing per Cent of Correct Responses on Sach Item of Aptitude Test for Highest and Lowest Third of 160 French Students, With Values of the Discriminative Ability and Difficulty of Each Item

Item Ho.

% of High Croup passing

% of Lew Group Passing

Part 1 la lb 2a 2b 3a 3b 4a 4b 6a ib 6a 6b 7a ?b 8a 8b 9a 9b 9o m 10a 10b 10c lOd

100 100 98 100 100 68 88 96 100 100 80 100 98 88 96 98 94 96 98 96 96 98 96 88

66 84 90 @2 @8 60 60 74 70 92 38 38 88 23 78 72 44 74 76 76 64 82 60 48 Part 1

1 2 3 4 6 6 ? 8 9 10 11 12 13

98 96 100 100 82 94 98 100 98 84 72 96 96

84 68 78 92 62 84 80 62 84 74 40 32 70

(% H * ?Sb) Difference

Critical % of Com* Ratio of bined Groups Difference_____ passing

Section A 34 16 3 18 12 * 2 28 22 30 3 42 12 40 40 13 26 60 22 22 20 32 16 36 40

3 §10

2.80

2,60

33 92 94 91 94 69 74 36 36 96 69 94 78 43 87 36 69 36 87 86 80 90 78 68

Section B 14 3 22 8 30 10 13 33 14 10 32 14 26

2.50

1.62 3 .01 2.60 1.24 2.26

91 92 89 96 67 89 89 81 91 79 66 89 63

119

Table $6 (Coat*) % of High

Group Item Re. 14 16 16 17 18 19 90

passing 98 98 100 98 96 98 98

% of t m droop passing 88 74 84 70 63 90 64 Part 1

1 2 3 4 6 6 7 8 9 10 11 18 18 14 18 16 17 18 19 20

98 98 98 96 69 66 98 88 90 74 68 96 . 80 @6 @8 70 63 76 78 63

@8 @6 96 70 34

n 76 64 66 34 48 62 32 32 68 36 23 42 64 16 Part 1

1 8 8 4 6 6 7 8 9 10

80 m m 74 36 100 33 94 100 93

74 40 40 40 42 64 70 54 74 40

(% H * % l) Difference 10 18 16 22 28 8 34

Critical Rati© of Difference 1*51 2,47

% of Comblnod Groups Passing 87 63 @2 81 32 94 31

Section C 10 10 2 26 34 34 22 89 34 40 14 34 43 24 26 34 40 94 24 52

1*42

2*49

93 93 97 83 51 49 87 69 73 54 53 79 66 44 7® S3 43 59 66 42

Section 0 6 50 40 34 44 36 18 40 26 52

2*27

77 66 60 57 64 32 79 74 87 66

120

Table 36 (Cont*)

Item Ho*

% of High Group passing

% of Low {% H * % L) Group Difference passing_____________

Critical Ratio of Difference

% of Combined Groups

part 11 1 a 3 4 6 6 7 6 9 10 11 12 13 14 16 16 17 18 10 m 21 22 S3 04 S3 2$ 27 28 28 30 31 32 38 34 36

80 4a 60 88 30 86 82 94 84 60 80 88 98 84 64 68 60 90 74 78 72 76 42 70 68 76 42 86 60 64 76 80 40 24 86

62 24 64 62 28 70 64 74 32 14 SO 62 64 36 46 16 40 86 34 26 20 A-& Ww 18 SO 38 30 26 34 46 22 76 88 6 18 62

28 24 6 36 2 16 18 20 32 46 30 36 34 48 6 32 10 34 40 32 32 32 24 40 SO 46 16 32 14 32 0 22 34 6 34

2*36

1*87 2*07

1*01

2*71

1*72 1*42

2.48

66 36 37 70 29 78 73 84 88 37 63 70 81 60 80 42 43 73 84 82 46 60 30 so 63 53 34 60 53 33 76 69 23 21 69

Part i n la lb le 2a 2b 2c 3a 3b

100 98 78 78 78 88 98 94

94 88 40 S2 36 46 92 42

6 10 38 26 42 42 6 32

97 93 59 65 67 67 95 68

121 Table 86 (Cost*)

Item m »

% of High Group gassing

% ©f % m (% s ** % t) Group Difference Passing______________

Critical Patio of Difference

% of Combined Groups passing

Part i n ,(Caafe») So 4a 4b 46 5a 5b 5o 6a 6b 6o 7a 7b 7© @a 8b 8e 9a 9b 9© 10a 10b 10© 11a lib 11c 12a 12b 12© 18a 18b 18© 14a 14b 14c 15a 15b 18© 16a 16b 16© 17a 17b 17© 18a 18b 18© 19a

94 100 100 86 6 96 98 98 100 56 64 92 100 96 94 90 100 94 76 100 94 84 96 94 100 98 94 96 100 94 98 100 100 84 98 98 88 96 86 100 98 98 100 42 84 94 92

42 72 56 66 26 60 78 90 74 46 66 54 54 80 48 66 48 66 56 82 64 48 62 52 42 86 64 44 66 48 42 66 70 54 52 64 56 70 44 @8 56 53 52 50 40 60 42

52 28 44 28 -20 46 26 8 26 10 6 58 46 16 46 54 52 28 40 13 50 56 54 62 53 12 SO m 54 46 66 14 SO 50 46 54 22 26 42 48 42 60 88 12 44 44 50

08 86

78

n n

78 86

m

2*64

8*81

87 61 60 78 77 86 71 78 74 80 66 91 79 66 79 68 71 92

79 70 85

n

2,00

70 98 88

1.26

59 75 81 47 88 €5 78 77 68 66 86 62 72 67

-f

Table 35 (Cost*) % at High Group

% of Low Group

Part 19b 19c 20* 20b

so» 21* 21b 21o 22* 82b 22e 23* 23b 23c 24ft 24b 24o 33* 25b 200 26ft 26b 860 87a 27b 87e 28ft 28b 200 29ft 29b 290 30ft 30b 30c 31* Sib Sle 32ft 32b 32c 33* 33b 33c

92 96 94 96 62 100 100 98 96 100 78 100 100 96 72 54 96 70 96 96 96 96 90 96 96 80 70 96 92 86 98 96 94 98 96 98 06 98 92 96 96 100 98 98

40 68 44 42 36 78 78 36 @2 68 58 70 64 40 26 32 52 40 54 60 68 60 44 76 46 46 34 38 54 40 44 33 54 40 26 50 32 48 40 40 38 68 50 86

lit

{% H ~ % L) Difference

Critical Ratio of Difference

% of Com-* bined Groups

(Cent,) 62 38 SO @4 26 22 28 @2 34 32 20 50 46 56 46 22 AA Ttut 36 42 36 86 46 46 20 SO 2 56 58 38 46 54 58 40 58 58 68 62 50 52 56 56 32 48 62

66 77 69 69 49 @9 86 67 79 84

66 85 77 66 49 46 74 68 76 78 77 73 67

86 71 49 S3 67 78 68 71 67 74 69 67 64 63 73

66 68 67 84 74 67

A

Table $5 (Cont.)

Item Ko.

% of High Group gagging

% of Low Group Passing

{% H - % L) Difference

Critical Ratio of Difference

% of Com­ bined Groups

fart 111 (Coat.) 34a 34b 34o 33a 33b 33e

m 36 100 96 96 76

38 88 34 74 46 24

40 36 66 22 30 32

78 77 67 @3 71 60

SAMPLE TESTS

Registration

Series FA-2

No......

Form M

IOWA PLACEMENT EXAMINATIONS N E W SERIES, REVISED

FOREIGN LANGUAGE APTITUDE Constructed by G.

D. S to d d a r d Revised by

G race C o ch ra n ,

J. R. N i e l s o n , D. B. S t u i t

Name............ -... (Print)

Date.......

Last

First

Grade or Class........Age

Middle

......Date of Birth................... Sex.

School or College...............

City.—...........

What foreignlanguages have you studiedf Givenumber ofsemesters ofeach........ ... G e n e r a l D ire c t io n s

This is a test to see how quickly and accurately you can think in the field of language. The test consists of three parts with special directions for each part. Read the directions carefully and examine the samples so you will know exactly how you are to do the exercises. An answer sheet is provided on which you are to place all of your responses. This answer sheet isto be tom from the booklet when you begin work. Do not write any answers on the test booklets.

The sample exercises indicate how your answers are to be recorded. When the signal is given, begin to work on Part 1 and stop when time iscalled. You are not to go back over any previous part after time has been called.

Answer the questions in order as you come to them, but do not spend too much time on any one item. You shouldanswer allquestions on which you have some information, but do not guess. A certainproportion ofyour scorewillbe deducted for wrong answers. Indicate your answer by making a neat X in the appropriate circles, thus (g). If you make a mistake, erase your firstcheck mark. A ll items with two or more check marks will be scored wrong. Part

Time

1. Grammar

15

2. Inference

12

3. Construction

20

Total

47

Raw Score

Score Scale

Percentile

Experimental Edition, 1940. A ll rights reserved. Published by Bureau o f Educational Research and Service, State University of Iowa.

ANSWER SHEET Foreign Language Aptitude Part 1 (74 items) Seetion B

Section. A

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

(1) (2) (3) (4)

Part 2 (35 itmes)

Word 1

Section 0 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5),

Part 3 (105 items)

(1) (2) (3 ) (4)

E

W

Word 2. Word 3. E

w

E

w

la. o O O O

1. o o o o o

1-00000

1 - 0 0 0 0

1 o o

o o

o o

lb. o O O O

2. o o o o o

2-00000

2. o o o o

2 o o

o o

o o

Q 0 o o

o o

2a. O O O O

3. o o o o o

3-0 0 0 0 0

3.0000

2b. O O O O

4. o o o o o

4.00000

4.0000

3 o o 4 o o

3a. O O O O

5. o o o o o

5 - 0 0 0 0 0

5. o o o o

5 o o

o o

O 0

6. o o o o

6 o o

o o

O O

7. o o o o

7 o o

o o

O 0

8-0 0 0 0

8 o o

o o

O 0

o. o o o o

9 o o

o o

O O

10 o o 11 o o 12 o o

o o

O 0

o o

o o

o o

o o

o o

o o

o o

o o

O 0

6. o o o o o

6. O O 0 o o

4a. O O O O

7. o o o o o

7. o o o o o

4b. O O O O

8. o o o o o

8-00000

5a. O O O O

9. o o o o o

9 .0 0 0 0 0

10. O O O O

10. o o o o o

10. 0 o o o o

11. o o o o

11. o o o o o

11. o o o o o

12. o o o o

12. o o o o o

13. o o o o

13. o o o o o

14. O O O O

13 o o 14 o o

15. o o o o

15 o o

o o

o o

10. O O O O

16 o o

o o

o o

17. O O O O

17 o o 18 o o

o o

00

o o

o o

19 o o 20 o o

o o

o o

o o

0 0

21 o o 22 o o 23 o o

o o

0 0

o o

o o

5b. O O O O 6a. O O O O

6b. O O O O

12. o o o o o

7a. O O O O

13. o o o o o

7b.' O O O O

14. o o o o o

8a. O O O O

15. o o o o o

14. o o o o o

15-00 0 0 0 16. o o o o o

18. O O O O

8b. O O O O

16. o o o o o

17. o o o o o

9a. O O O O

17. o o o o o

18. o o o o o

20. o O O O

9b. O O O O

18. o o o o o

19. o o o o o

21. O O o o

9c. o o o o

19. o o o o o

20. o o o o o

22. o O O O

9d. o O O O

20. o o o o o

10a. O O O O

o o

o o

o o

o o

o o

o o

26 o o

o o

0 0

27. o O O O

27 o o

o o

o o

28. o O O O

28 o o

o o

O 0

29. o O O O

29 o o

o o

oo

30. o O O O

30 o o

o o

6.000

O 0

31. o o o o

o o

32. o O O O

31 o o 32 o o

o o

7. o o o

o o

0

8.000

33. o O O O

33 o o

o o

0 0

9. o o o

34. o O O O

o o

o o

10. O O O

35. o O O O

34 o o *>. U U

o o

O 0

1-0 0 0 •

2.o o o

10c. O O O O

3-000 lOd. O O O O

4. o o o

Part I= No. Right Part 11= No. Right Part 111= No. Right No. Wrong. Total

23. o O O O

24 o o 25 o o

Section D (1) (2) (3)

10b. O O O O

19. o o o o

5. o o o

24. o O O O 25. o O O O 26. O O O O

0

(Tear off along this line)

3b. O O O O

PART 1. GRAMMAR. (Time limit— 15 minutes) Directions: There are four sections in Part 1, lettered A, B, C, and D.Special directions are provided for each section. Be sure to read these very carefully. S e c t i o n A. Read each of the sentences in this section and select its subject and its verb. Following each item are four possible choices, properly numbered. Make your selection, and mark with an X the appropriate circle on the answer sheet. S a m p le : The wind was blowing relentlessly. 12 3 4 A. The verb is: (1) wind was (2) was(3) was blowing (4) blowing a. O O O O B. The subject is: (1) wind (2) blowing (3) was (4) relentlessly b. 0 O O O The answer to A is “was blowing”,number (3). The answer to B is “wind”,number (1). These numbers have been checked in the proper circles. 1. Have you noticed the rosegarden? a. The verb is: (1) have you (2) have noticed (3) noticed (4) have b. The subject is: (1) have (2) you noticed (3) garden (4) you 2. During the battle two generals received mortal wounds. a. The verb is: (1) received (2) during (3) wounds (4) two received b. The subject is: (1) battle (2)two (3) generals (4) wounds 3. There has been too much fighting inthis world. a. Theverb is: (1) fighting (2) been (3) there has (4) has been b.The subject is: (1)there (2) fighting (3)world (4) much 4. Walking is considered oneof the best forms of exercise. a.The verb is: (1) is considered (2) exercise (3) is (4) walking b. The subject is: (1) one (2) forms (3)walking (4) exercise 5. Forgotten incidents, no matter how trivial,often influence one’s later life. a. The verb is: (1)forgotten (2)influence (3) often (4) one’s b. The subject is: (1) life (2) trivial (3) incidents (4) influence 6. Must you leave the party so early? a. The verb is: (1) leave (2) must you (3) early (4) must leave b. The subject is: (1) must (2) you (3) party (4) early 7. Four of us fellows did not go yesterday. a. The verb is: (1) did not (2) go yesterday (3) go (4) did go b. The subject is: (1) us (2) four (3) yesterday (4) fellows 8. Never was a day more beautiful than last Sunday! a. The verb is: (1) more (2) never was (3) was (4) than b. The subjectis: (1) day (2) beautiful (3) never (4) Sunday 9. Although they had been there many times, Henry had never before entered the damp, dark cave. a. The verb in the independent clause is: (1) had never (2) entered (3) had been (4) had entered b. The subject of the independent clause is: (1) they (2) cave (3) Henry (4) never e. The verb in the dependent clause is: (1) had never (2) entered (3) had been (4) had entered d. The subject ofthe dependent clauseis:(1) they (2) cave (3) Henry (4) never 10. Friends who struggle constantly to demonstrate their friendship often make us quite uncomfortable. a. The verb in the independent clause is: (1) demonstrate (2) make (3) struggle (4) uncomfortable b. The subject of the independent clause is: (1) friends (2) us (3) who (4) friendship e. The verb in the dependent clause is: (1) demonstrate (2) make (3) struggle (4) uncomfortable d. The subject of the dependent clause is: (l)friends (2) us (3) who (4) friendship — 3—

S e c t i o n B-l: This section deals with parts of speech. Group Y (at the right) is a list of five parts of speech. Match each italicized word in the sentences of Group X with the part of speech itrepresents, by making a check in the proper circle on the answer sheet. For the following examples refer to Group Y-l. 1 2 3 4 5 S a m p le s : A. The style has changed ........................... .a. ® O O O O B. He ran away rapidly ............................. b. O O ® O O

In example A the word style isa noun, so circle 1 has been checked. In sample B, ran isa verb, so circle 3 has been cheeked. Group X - l

Group Y -l

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

The shipwrecked sailors were given food and hot coffee. (1) noun He heard the voices of people and thesound of horses. (2)pronoun The Giants won the game easily. (3)verb They think that they willcome. (4)adjective William feltthat he had lost his only opportunity. (5)adverb We have more leisuretime than they. The longest days of the year are in summer. An announcement will be made very soon. Do you promise never to tell my secret? She has to mail several letters. S e c t i o n B-2. Proceed as in Section B-l. Group X-2 isa new listof sentences and Group Y-2 isa different list of parts of speech. Group X -2

Group Y-2

(1) noun (2) pronoun (3) verb (4) preposition (5) conjunction

It will be warm if the sun shines. A man in uniform was walking toward the house. The general gave him a medal for his bravery. He never discovered who his enemy was. They are dining this evening with some friends. Either Washington or Lincoln might have said that. It is easier to destroy than to construct. The food was divided among the fivesurvivors. A good watchdog isthe best protection against thieves. He plans to be here in a few days. S e c t i o n C-l. This sectiontestsyour knowledge ofverb forms. Each ofthe sentences in Group X-l contains an italicized verb form. Group Y-l is a partial listof names of verb forms. Check in the proper circle on the answer sheetthenumber of your selectionas listedin Group Y-l. 1 2 3 4 5 S a m p le : You are ready to begin, 0 O O O O The verb are expresses present time. In Group Y-l “present” isdesignated by number (1), so circle 1 has been checked.

11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

Group X - l

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

He knew where to find me. Do you know who he is? The president w ill speak tonight. Next semester I shall improve my grades. He earned the money by selling papers. Clothing styles are seen to change every season. — 4—

Group Y -l

(1) present (2) past (3) future (4) present participle (5) infinitive

7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

As soon as he saw the danger, he fled. They always come to meet us when we arrive. I was leisurely writing a letter when you called. Soon birds will begin to fly southward. The doctor is doing all that can be done. What did he have in his pocket?

S e c t io n

C-2. Proceed as in C-l. Group X-2 isa new set of sentences, and Group Y-2 has been changed. Group Y-2

Group X-2

13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

The train had left fiveminutes earlier. If the children have been good we shall let them play. Tomorrow I shall have finished this task. Lawrence discarded the broken tools. What has she discovered about the mysterious noise? If anything had happened we should have called you. Having learned his lesson, he became more cautious. They have proved their innocence.

(1) past participle (2) present perfect (3) past perfect (orpluperfect) (4) future perfect (5) past future (or conditional perfect)

S e c t io n D. The following section deals with noun and pronoun objects. Determine which kind of object listed in Group Y describes the italicized word in the sentences of Group X. Then check its number in the proper circle of the answer sheet. 12 3 S a m p le s : A. He gave us his attention a. O O 0 B. He refused us his a i d ...................................b. O 0 O In Sample A, “us” isan indirect object. This isdesignated by number 3 in the Group Y, The proper circlein column 3 ofthe answer has been checked forsentenceA. In Sample B, “aid” isa direct object; circle2 hasbeen checkedforthatsentence.

Group Y

Group X

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

They told John the news. Massive rocks are seen rolling down the cliff. My friends gave me bad advice. The children offered the monkey some peanuts. They will send you the order immediately. She left the room without her books. The judge gave the prisoner a light sentence. The noise frightened us badly. The childrenwere senttothe store eachmorning. They bought her many beautiful flowers. End of Fart 1. — 5—

(1) object of preposition (2) direct object of verb (3) indirect object of verb

PART 2. LANGUAGE INFERENCE. (Time limit— 12 minutes) Directions: Below are some sentences in the international language, Esperanto. Read each sentence carefully, trying to understand it as well as you can, and examine especially the word in italics. You will find that this word (in italics) frequently resembles an English word, or you will recognize other words which will give you a clue to itsmeaning. For each sentence put a cheek mark 0 in that circle of the answer which corresponds to your choice of the four possible meanings of the italicized word. 12 3 4 S a m p le s : A. La sun kaj la luno brilas. (1) light (2) shine (3) moon (4) lu n g ............... a. O O 0 O B. La urbo Bostono estas granda. (1) orb (2) urge (3) orbit (4) e it y b. O O O 0 In the firstexample, “moon” isthe correct meaning so circle 3 has been checked. In the second example, “city” is correct so circle 4 has been checked. 1. Mia frato estas pligranda, olmi. (4) eats (1) states (2) is (3) establishes 2. Spite la lauta muziko, mi dormis bone. (4) door (1) home (2) room (3) slept 3. Mi havas cent pomojn. (1) my (2) I (3) me (4) we Mia frato ne estas granda. (4) father (1) brother (2) friend (3) house 5. Objektoj en la aero devas fali. (1) fail (2) false (3) fall (4) folly 6. Li estas mia onklo, car mia patro estas lia frato. (4) auto-horn (1) uncle (2) only (3) ankle 7. Li laboras kun pacienco. (4) pacing (1) patience (2) poreh (3) peace 8. Kio estas via nomo ? Mi nomo estas Johano. (4) name (1) none (2) no one (3) number 9. Mi ne havas multe da tempo. (4) temple (1) temper (2) speed (3) time 10. Mi lavis min per klara akvo. (4) lived (1) lavished (2) loved (3) washed 11. Januaro estas la unua monato de la jaro. (4) mountain (1) month (2) money (3) monotonous 12. Vi skribis la leteron pro mi. (4) wrote (3) scribe (1) subscribed (2) pencils 13. La knabo trovas florojn en lagardeno. (4) flowers (1) floors (2) foreign (3) flown 14. Nek la rozo nek laviolo estas verda. (3) not (4) neither (1) neck (2) nor 15. Li vivis longan tempon. (1) life (2) lived (4) visited (3) vivid 16. Li logas proksime de mia domo. (1) approximate (2) promise (3) provokes (4) near 17. Malbonaj infanoj amas turmenti bestojn. (1) turmoil (2) totorment (3) to terminate (4) tournament Georgo Vashington e s t i s naskita l a dudek duan de Februaro 18. (4) named (1) president (2) national (3) bom 19. Li logas en la granda domo blanka. (4) master (3) dome (1) house (2) head 20 . K ie vi estas? Mi estas en la gardeno. (4) can (3) who (1) what (2) where 21. Lakto estas pli nutra, ol vino. (4) liquor (3) like (1) lake (2) milk — 6—

22. Super la tero sin trovas aero. (1) earth (2) terror (3) airplane (4) tear 23. La rusoj logas en Rusujo kaj la germanoj en Germanujo (1) live (2) language (3) logs (4) speak 24. Mi rigardas ion per miaj okuloj. (1) octagons (2) orchestra (3) actually (4) eyes 25. La hundo estasciam fidela allamajstro (1) fiddle (2) faithful (3) field (4) federal 26. La ricaj homoj ne estas felicaj. (1) happy (2) fellow (3) cat (4) criminal 27. Mi konas Johanon;mi vidas lin ofte. (1) line (2) with (3) very (4) him 28. La kuraga maristo dronis en la maro. (1) to-morrow (2) sea (3) mare (4) morning 29. Mi vojagas en Hispanujo. (1) Spanish (2) Spain (3) ship (4) Hawaiian 30. Mi neniel povas kompreni, kion vi parolas. (1) company (2) compromise (3) know (4) understand 31. La hebreoj estas Izraelidoj, car ili devenas de Izraelo. (1) herbs (2) men (3) rulers (4) Hebrews 32. La diamanto havas belan brilon. (1) dynamic (2) diameter (3) dynamite (4) diamond 33. Mi konas neniun en tiu ci urbo; mi estas sole. (1) never (2) ninth (3) nobody (4) name 34. La kapitano portis la blankan flagon. (1) empty (2) white (3) blank (4) blanket 35. La sukero estas pli dolca, ol vinagro. (1) sugar (2) succor (3) sunk (4) sucker End of Part 2. PART 3. LANGUAGE CONSTRUCTION. (Time limit— 20 minutes) This isa test of your abilityto work with a new language. Below are given the vocabulary and rules neces­ saryforthe translation ofthe exercises which follow. Read these carefully, but do not try tomemorize the words or rules for you may consult them freely while translating the sentences. V oc a bulary

............ I .... ........ you he .. ..... .............. they am, is, are -fear, fears (verb) ..........

mi vi li estas —timas

energize, energizes ...... succeed, succeeds .. die, dies .. ili live, lives____ hope, hopes -------------end, ends (verb) ..

energias sukcesas mortas vivas esperas finas

R ules

To Form:

Nouns: Adjectives: Adverbs: Past tense of verbs: Future tense of verbs: Plural of nouns and adjectives:

Examples :

(Most of the examples given are based on the verb live, lives, translated vivas). Substitute “o” for the “as” ending of verbs. Substitute “a” for the “as” ending of verbs. Substitute “e” for the “as” ending of verbs. Change the “as” ending of the present to “is”. Change the “as” ending of the present to “os”.

life ..... ..... alive . .... . ... . lively ___ _ .-.. lived _____ __________ will live .... ____

Add “j” to the singular. Adjectives qualifying a plural noun must be plural also.

fearful lives

Objective case of nouns and pronouns: Add “n” to the last letter of the noun or pronoun. Add “a” to the corresponding pronoun. Possessive adjectives: —Y—

vivo viva vive V1V1S

vivos

timaj vivoj

to end life__ .. fini vivon his ______ .... .. lia

Now read the directions which precede the exercises. You will make more progress by doing the exercises immediately, looking back to page 7 for needed information, than by spending your time studying or memoriz­ ing the above rules and vocabulary. Directions: In translating these sentences you will be scored on each word in each of the sentences. Indicate by making an X in the appropriate circle whether a word iscorrectly or incorrectly translated. In example A, each word is correct so the “R ” (Right) circle has been checked in each case. In example B, the second word isincorrect, so the “W ” (Wrong) circle has been checked, but the first and third words are correct sothe “R ” circles are checked. Be very careful to put your check in the proper circle. S am ples : Sentences

A. He will be energetic. B. Vi finos timon. Sentences

T r a n s l a t io n s

Li estos energia. You ended fear.

Word 1 R W a. 0 o b. 0 o

T r a n s l a t io n s

1. Mi estassukeese. 1. I am successful. 2 . My hope died. Mi e s p e r a m o r t a s . 2. 3 . Vi sukcesos energio. 3. You succeeded energetically. 4. They hoped successfully. 4. Ilia esperis sukeese. 5. Via sukcesoj vivas. 5. Your successes live. 6 . Death ends life. 6. Morto finas vivon. 7. Esperaj energioj sukcesos. 7. Hopeful energies will succeed. 8. He fears them. 8. Lia timis ilin. 9. Ilinmortos time. 9. They will die fearfully. 10. Life energizes me. 10. Vivo energias mi. 11. Li energia mortis. 11. His energy will die. 12. I lived hopefully. 12. Mi vivis espero. 13. Morto estos timon. 13. Death will be fearful. 14. He isalive. 14. Li estas vivas. 15. Ilin timis sukcesoj. 15. They feared successes. 16. Your fear will end. 16. Via timo finos. 17. Sukceso estis mortoj. 17. Success was dead. 18. Energetic hopes will live. 18. Energia espero vivos. 19. Mi esperoj vivoj. 19. My hopes lived. 20. Fears end hopes. 20. Timoj finos esperojn. 21. Mi mortas esperaj. 21. I die hopefully. 22. Energy islively. Energio e s t a s v i v e . 22. 23. Vivo finis espere. 23. Life ended hopefully. 24. My energies willsucceed. 24. Miaj energiaj sukcesos. T heir l i v e s w i l l e n d . 2 5. Iliaj vivoj finos. 25. 26. You willfear me. 26. Vin timas mia. 27. He was hopeful. 27. Li estis espere. 28. Miaj sukceso finis. 28. My successes ended. 29. Energetic hopes succeed. 29. Energiaj esperon sukcesis. 30. Viaj esperos sukeese. 30. You will hope successfully. 31. His energy dies. 31. Liaj energioj mortas. 32. Tima energiis lin. 32. Fear energized him. 33. I will live energetically. 33. Mi vivos energio. 34. Via esperas time. 34. You hope fearfully. 35. They were hopeful. 35. Iliestis esperaj. End of Part 3. End of test.

Word 2 R W

Word 3 R W

® o

(8) O 0 O

O ®

Registration

Series FA-2

No......

Form

M

IOWA PLACEMENT EXAMINATIONS H E W SERIES, REVISED

FOREIGN LANGUAGE APTITUDE Constructed by

G. D. S to d d a r d Revised by G race C o ch ra n ,

J. R .

N ie ls o n ,

D. B. S t t j i t

Name ............... ............................ ....... Date..................... (Print)

Last

First

Middle

Grade or Class........ Age........ Date of Birth................... Sex.......... School or College..............................

City..........................

What foreign languages have you studied? Give number of semesters of each.........................

G e n e r a l D irections

This is a test to see how quickly and accurately you can think in the field of language. The test consists of three parts with special directions for each part. Read the directions carefully and examine the samples so you will know exactly how you are to do the exercises. Page 2 of this booklet is the answer sheet on which you are to place all of your responses. This answer sheet isto be torn from the booklet when you begin work. Do not write any answers on the test booklets. The sample exercises indicate how your answers are to be recorded. When the signal is given, begin to work on Part 1. Stop when time iscalled. You are not to go back over any previous part after time has been called. Answer the questions in order as you come to them, but do not spend too much time on any one item. You should answer all questions on which you have some information, but do not guess. A certain proportion of your score will be deducted for wrong answers.

Indicate your answer by making a neat X in the appropriate circles, thus 0. If you make a mistake, erase your firstcheck mark. A ll items w ith two or more check marks will be scored wrong. Part

Time

1. Inference

10

2. Construction

20

3. Grammar

15

Total

45

Raw Score

Score Scale

Percentile

Published by Bureau of Educational Research and Service, State University of Iowa. Copyright, 1941, by the authors. A ll rights reserved,

ANSWER SHEET Foreign Language Aptitude

Word 1 (1) (2) (3) (4)

Part 3 (74 items)

Part 2 (90 items)

R

W

R

W

R

1. o o o o

1. o o

o o

o o

la. O O O O

2. o o o o

2. O O o o

o o

lb. o

3. o o o o

3. O O o o

o o

2a. O O O O

4. O O o o

o o

2b. o O O O

4. o o o o 5. o o o o 6. O O O O 7. o o o o 8. o o o o 9. o o o o 10. O O O O 11. O 0 o o

5. O O O 0 6. O O o o

o o o o

4a. O O O O

6.

7. o o o o o

9. O O o o 10. O O o o 11. O O o o

o o

4b. O O O O

o o

5a. O O O O

o o

5b. O O O O

14. o o o o

o o

6b. O O O O

15. o o o o

15. o o

O 0

o o

16. o o o o

0 .0

18. o o o o

16. o O o o 17. o O o o 18. o o o o

o o

19. o 0 o o

19. o o

o o

20. o O O O

20. O O o o

o o

9a. O O O O

21. o o o o

2 1 .0 0 o o 22. O O o o 23. O O o o

o o o o

17. o o o o

22. o O O O 23. o O O O

o o

o o

o o

7b. O O O O

12.

ooooo

8a. O O O O

13. o

oooo

14. o

oooo

9b. O O O O

15. o

oooo

9c. O O O O

16. o

oooo

8b. O O O O

9d.

oOOO

o o

29. o O O O 30. o O O O

30. O O o o

o o

•

A= R= W (A-R) = --S = (R— W) =

10a. O O O O

1. O O O 2. O O O

3.

ooo

ooo 6.o o o 7. o o o 8.o o o 9.o o o 5.

10. O O O Section D (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

O O O O O

o o

Part 2

oooo

11.

27. o O o o 28. O O o o 29. O O o o

28. o O O O

9. o

7a. O O O O

o o

26. o O O O 27. O O O O

ooooo ooooo

10b. O O O O

o o

ooooo

10.

o o

25. o O O O

8.

6a. O O O O

24. O O o o 25. O O o o 26. O O 0 o

24. o O O O

(1) (2) (3)

4. O 0 . 0

4. o o o o o 5. o o o o o

o o

13. o o o o

2. o o o o o

3b. O O O O

o o

o o

O O O O O

3. o o o o o

3a. O O O O

12. o O o o 13. o O O 0 14. o O o o

12. o o o o

1.

oo o

7. O O O 0 8. O O o o

o o

(1 ) (2 ) (3 ) (4) (5)

(1) (2) (3) (4)

W

Section 0

Section B

Section A

Word 2. Word 3.

17.

ooooo

18. o

oooo

10c. O O O O

19. o

oooo

lOd. O O O O

20.

ooooo

o o Part 1 = No. Right = Part 2 = S (R— W) = Part 3 ■==: No. Right =

Total e=

1. o

oo o o

2.o oo o o 3.o oo o o 4.o oo o o 5. o oo o o 6. o oo o o 7. o oo o o 8. o o o oo 9. o oo o o 10. o

oo o o

oo o o 12.o oo o o 13. o o o o o 14. o o o o o 15. o o o o o 16. o o o o o 17. o o o o o

11. o

18. o o o o o 19. o o o

o o

20. o o o

o o

(Tear off along this line)

Part 1 (30items)

PART 1. LANGUAGE INFERENCE (Time limit— 10 minutes) Directions: Below are some sentences in the international language, Esperanto. Read each sentence carefully, trying to understand it as well as you can. Examine especially the word in italics for the purpose of giving its English meaning. You may recognize this English equivalent because (1) the italicized word resembles an English word, or because (2) other words in the sentence give you a clue to itsmeaning. For each sentence put a check mark in the circleof the answer sheet which corresponds toyour choice of the four possible mean­ ings of the italicized word. 12 3 4 S a m p le s : A. La suno kaj la luno brilas. (1) light (2) shine (3) moon (4) lu n g ............... a. O O ® O B. La urbo Bostono estas granda. (1) orb (2) urge (3) orbit (4) city...................b. O O O ® In the firstexample, “moon” isthe correct meaning so circle 3 has been checked. In the second example, “city” is correct so circle 4 has been checked. 1. Kio estas via nomol Mia nomo estas Johano. 2.

3. 4. 5. 6.

7. .8 .

9. 10.

11. 12.

13. 14 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

(1) none (2) no one (3) number (4) name La knabo trovasflorojn en la gardeno. (1) floors (2) foreign (3) flown (4) flowers Li estas mia onklo, car mia patro estas liafrato. (1) uncle (2) only (3) ankle (4) auto-horn Li laboras kun pacienco. (1) patience (2) porch (3) peace (4) pacing Georgo Yashington estisnaskita la dudukduande Februaro. (3) born (1) president (2) national (4) named Mia frato ne estas granda. (1) brother (2) friend (3) house (4) father Vi skribis la leteron pro mi. (3) scribe (4) wrote (1) subscribed (2) pencils La dicmanto havas belan brilon. (3) dynamite (1) dynamic (2) diameter (4) diamond La sukero estas pli dolca, ol vinagro. (3) sunk (4) sucker (1) sugar (2) succor Mia frato estas pli granda, olmi. (1) states (2) is (3) establishes (4) eats Januaro estasla unua monato de la jaro (3) monotonous (1) month (2) money (4) mountain La hundo estas ciam fidela al lamajstro. (3) field (1) fiddle (2) faithful (4) federal Super la tero sin trovas aero. (3) airplane (1) earth (2) terror (4) tear Nek la rozo nek la violo estas verda. (3) not (4) neither (1) neck (2) nor La kuraga maristo dronis en lamaro. (4) morning (3) mare (1) to-morrow (2) sea Mi ne havas multe da tempo. (4) temple (3) time (1) temper (2) speed Li logas en la granda domo blanka. (4) master (3) dome (1) house (2) head Mi vojagas en Hispanujo. (4) Hawaiian (3) ship (1) Spanish (2) Spain La rieaj homoj ne estasfelicaj. (4) criminal (1) happy (2) fellow (3) cat 3—

20. K ie vi estas? Mi estas en la gardeno. (1) what (2) where (3) who (4) can 21. Mi rigardas ion per miaj okuloj. (1) octagons (2) orchestra (3) actually (4) eyes 22. Lakto estas pli nutra, ol vino. (4) liquor (1) lake (2) milk (3) like 23. Malbonaj infanoj amas turmenti bestojn. (4) tournament (3) toterminate (1) turmoil (2) totorment 24. Li logas proksime de mia domo. (4) near (3) provokes (1) approximate (2) promise 25. Mi neniel povas kompreni, kion vi parolas. (4) understand (3) know (1) company (2) compromise 26. Mi lavis min per klara akvo. (3) washed (4) lived (1) lavished (2) loved 27. Spite lalauta muziko, mi dormis bone. (3) slept (4) door (1) home (2) room 28. Mi konas Johanon;mi vidas lin ofte. (3) very (4) him (1) line (2) with 29. La rusoj logas en Rusujo kaj la germanoj en Germanujo. (4) speak (1) live (2) language (3) logs 30. Mi konas neniim en tiuciurbo;mi estas sole. (1) never (2) ninth (3) nobody (4) name End of Fart 1. PART 2. LANGUAGE CONSTRUCTION (Time limit— 20 minutes) Thiais a test of your abilityto work with a new language. Below are given the vocabulary and rules neces­ sary for the translation of the exercises which follow. Read these carefully, but do not try tomemorize the words or rules for you may consult them freely. V o c abulary

energize, energizes............... energias succeed, succeeds............... sukcesas die, dies ..... mortas live, lives...................... vivas hope, hopes....................esperas end, ends (verb) ................. finas

I mi you............................ vi he li they -.......................... ill am, is, are..................... estas fear, fears (verb) timas R ules

To Form:

Nouns: Adjectives: Adverbs: Past tense of verbs: Future tense ofverbs: Plural of nouns and adjectives: Objective case of nouns and pronouns:

(Most of the examples given are based on the verb live, lives, translated vivas). Substitute “o” for the “as” ending of verbs. Substitute “a” for the “as” ending of verbs. Substitute “e” for the “as” ending of verbs. Change the “as” ending of the present to “is”. Change the “as” ending of the present to “os”.

life ........... alive ........... lively .......... lived ........... will live ........

Add “j” to the singular. Adjectives qualifying a plural noun must be plural also.

fearful lives .. timaj vivoj

Add “n” to the last letter of the noun or pronoun.

Examples:

vivo viva vive vivis vivos

to end life (lives) fini vivon (vivojn) Add “a” to the corresponding pronoun. Possessive adjectives: his ............. Ha Now read the directions below for the exercises on page 5. You will make more progress by doing the exercises immediately, looking back to thispage forneeded information, than by spending your time studying or memorizing the above rules and vocabulary. Directions: On the opposite page are a number of sentences with their translations. You are to determine whether each word in these sentences has been correctly translated; then indicate your decision by making an X in the appropriate circle. Study the sample exercises at the top of page 5. — 4— .

PART 2. LANGUAGE CONSTRUCTION (Continued) S am ples : S e n te n c e s

T r a n s la tio n s

Word 1 R W

Word 2 R W

Word 3 R W

A. He willbe energetic. Li estos energia. a. 0 O 0 O 0 O B. Yi finos timon. You ended fear. b. 0 O O 0 0 O In example A, each word iscorrect so the “R ” (Right) circle has been checked in each case. In example B, the second word isincorrect, so the “W ” (Wrong) circle has been checked, but the first and third words are correct so the “R ” circles are checked. Be very careful to put your check in the proper circle. You will be scored on each word in each of the sentences. Sentences

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 10. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

He is successful. Mia vivis espero. He is alive. Vivo energias mi. He fears them. Vi sukcesos energio. Life ended hopefully. Mi vivos energio. Your fear will end. Morto estos timon. You hope fearfully. Vin timas mia. His energy will die. Sukceso estis mortoj. Their lives will end. Lia timis ilin. They will die fearfully. Mi esperoj vivoj. You will hope successfully. Iliestis esperaj. Fear energized him. Energiaj esperon sukcesis. His energy dies. Miaj sukceso finis. My hope died. Timoj finos esperojn. They feared successes. Energia espero vivos. My energies will succeed. Ilia esperis sukeese.

T r a n sl a t io n s

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

Mi estas sukeese. I lived hopefully. Li estas vivas. Life energizes me. Lia timis ilin. They succeeded energetically. Vivo finis espere. I will live energetically Via timo finos. Death willbe fearful. Via esperas time. You will fear me. Li energia mortis. Success was dead. Iliaj vivoj finos. He fears them. Ilin mortos time. My hopes lived. Viaj esperos sukeese. They were hopeful. Tima energiis lin. Energetic hopes succeed. Liaj energioj mortas. My successes ended. Mi espera mortas. Fears end hopes. Ilin timis sukcesoj. Energetic hopes will live. Miaj energiaj sukcesos. They hoped successfully.

End of Fart 2. — 5—

PART 3. GRAMMAR (Time limit— 15 minutes) Directions: There are four sections in Part 3, lettered A, B, C, and D. Special directions are provided for each section. Be sure to read these very carefully. S e c t i o n A. Read each o f the sentences in this section and select its subject and its verb. Following each item are four possible choices, properly numbered. Make your selection, and mark with an X the appropriate circle on the answer sheet. S a m p le : The wind was blowing relentlessly. 12 3 4 A. The verb is: (1) wind was (2) was (3) was blowing (4) blowing a. O O 0 O B. The subject is: (1) wind (2) blowing (3) was (4) relentlessly b. 0 O O O The answer to A is“was blowing”,number (3). The answer to B is “wind”,number (1). These numbers have been checked in the proper circles. 1. After ten years of fighting, the soldiers became discontented.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

10.

(4) discontented a. The verb is: (1) after (2) fighting (3) became b. The subject is: (1) after (2) years (3) fighting (4) soldiers At the foot of the cliffare found the bones of many unsuccessful climbers. a. The verb is: (1) at (2) are (3) are found (4) climbers ( 3 ) b ones (4) many b. The subject is:(1) foot (2) cliff Never was a day more beautiful thanlast Sunday! (4) than a. The verb is: (1) more (2) never was (3) was b. The subjectis: (1) day (2) beautiful (3) never (4) Sunday Have you noticed the rose garden? (2) have noticed a. The verb is: (1) have you (3) noticed (4) have (2) you noticed (3) garden b. The subject is: (1) have (4) you Walking isconsidered one of the best forms of exercise. a. The verb is: (1) is considered (2) exercise (3) is (4) walking b. The subject is: (1) one (2) forms (3)walking (4) exercise In the future I shall never forget the name of that street. a. The verb is: (1) shall never (2) forget (3) shallnever forget (4) shallforget b. The subject is:(1) future (2) never (3) I (4) name Why must you leave the party so early? a. The verb is: (1) leave (2) must you (3) early (4) must leave b. The subject is: (1) why (2) you (3) leave (4) party Four of us fellows did not go yesterday. a. The verb is: (1) did not (2) did (3) go (4) did go b. The subject is: (1) us (2) four (3) yesterday (4) fellows Although they had been there many times, Henry had never before entered the damp, dark cave. a. The verb in the independent clause is: (1) had never (2) entered (3) had been (4) had entered b. The subject of the independent clause is: (1) they (2) cave (3) Henry (4) never c. The verb in the dependent clause is: (1) had never (2) entered (3) had been (4) had entered d. The subject of the dependent clause is:(1) they (2) cave (3) Henry (4) never Friends who struggle constantly to demonstrate their friendship often make us quite uncomfortable. a. The verb in the independent clause is: (1) demonstrate (2) make (3) struggle (4) uncomfortable b. The subject of the independent clause is: (1) friends (2) us (3) who (4) friendship c. The verb in the dependent clause is: (1) demonstrate (2) make (3) struggle (4) uncomfortable d. The subject of the dependent clause is: (1)friends (2) us (3) who (4) friendship Turn to page 7 and go right on working. — 6—

S e c t i o n B-l: This section deals with parts of speech. Group Y (at the right) is a list of five parts of speech. Match each italicizedword in the sentences of Group X with the part of speech itrepresents, by making a check in the proper circle on the answer sheet. For the following examples refer to Group Y-l. 1 2 3 4 5 S a m p le s : A. The style has changed.............................. a. O O O O B. He ran away rapidly...................... .........b. O O ^ O O In example A the word style isa noun, so circle 1 has been checked. In sample B, ran is a verb, so circle 3 has been checked.

Group X - l

1. 2. ,3. 4. 5. 6. ..7. 8. 9. 10.

Group Y -l

the matter from your mind. (1) noun The giftwas offerednot aspayment but as an expression of gratitude. (2) pronoun The shipwrecked sailors were given food and hot coffee. (3) verb Do you promise never to tell my secret? (4) adjective We have more leisure time than they. (5) adverb The longest days of the year are in summer. The Giants won the game easily. An announcement will be made very soon. She has tomail several letters. William felt that he had lost his only opportunity. S e c t io n B-2. Proceed as in Section C-l. Group X-2 isa new list of sentences and Group Y-2 is a different listof parts of speech. Dismiss

Group X -2

Group Y-2

The consequences of that error remain to be seen. (1) noun He came because itwas hisduty. (2) pronoun A man in uniform was walking toward the house. (3) verb He never discovered who his enemy was. (4) preposition They are dining this evening with some friends. (5) conjunction The general gave him a medal for his bravery. The food was divided among the five survivors. It iseasier to destroy than to construct. He plans to be here in a few days. It willbe warm if the sun shines. S e c t i o n C. The following section deals with noun and pronoun objects. Determine which kind of object listed in Group Y describes the italicized word in the sentences of Group X. Then check its number in the proper circle of the answer sheet. 12 3 S a m p le s : A. He gave us his attention..................... ............ a. O O 0 B. He refused us his aid ........................... ... b. Q ® o In Sample A, “us*’isan indirect object. This isdesignated by number 3 in the Group Y. The proper circle in column 3 has been checked for sentence A. In Sample B, “aid” is a direct object; circle 2 has been checked for that sentence.

11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

Group X

1. The children were sent to the store each morning. 2. She leftthe room without her books. 3. The judge gave the prisoner a light sentence. Turn to page 8 and go right on working. — 7—

Group Y

(1)object of preposition (2)direct object of verb (3)indirect object of verb

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

They told the news to John. The noise frightened us badly. They bought her many beautiful flowers. Massive rocks are seen rolling down the cliff. They will send you the orderimmediately. My friends gave me bad advice. The children offered the monkey some peanuts.

S e c t i o n D-l. This sectiontests your knowledge of verb forms. Each of the sentences in Group X-l contains an italicized verb form. Group Y-l is a partial list of names of verb forms. Check in the proper circle on the answer sheetthenumber ofyour selectionaslistedin Group Y-l. 1 2 3 4 5 S a m p le :

Y ou

are ready to begin.

0 O O O O

The verb are expresses present time. In Group Y-l “present” isdesignated by number (1), so circle 1 has been checked. Group X -l

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Group Y -l

silentlybetween the trees, he approached the house unseen. We do find iteasier to read French than to speak it. I hope that you are able to make the correct decision. As soon as he saw the danger, he fled. Next,semester I shall improve my grades. What did he have in his pocket? I was leisurely writing a letter when you called. They always come to meet us when we arrive. The doctor is doing allthat can be done. Soon birds will begin to fly southward. He earned the money by selling papers. Clothing styles are seen to change every season. Creeping

S e c tio n

D:2. Proceed as in D-l. Group X-2 isa new set of sentences, and Group Y-2 has been changed. Group X-2

13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

(1) present (2) past (3) future (4) present participle (5) infinitive

Group Y-2

Tomorrow I shall have finished this task. Having learned his lesson, be became more cautious. If anything had happened we should have called you. The train had left fiveminutes earlier. Lawrence discarded the broken tools. What has she discovered about the mysterious noise? If the children have been good we shall let them play. They have proved their innocence. End of Part 3. End of the test. — 8—

(1) past participle (2) present perfect (3) past perfect (orpluperfect) (4) future perfect (5) past future perfect (orcon­ ditional perfect)

Language Usage Test Name

Section

Course

Each of the following sentences is to be changed so that all nouns and pronouns are in the plural, and all verbs are in the plural, present tense. One of the four choices does this correctly. Write its number in the biank. SAMPLE!

I saw (1) (2) (3) (4)

him® 4 We saw him. We saw them. They see them, We see them.

___ 1, He ate the apple. (1) He eats the apples,' (2) They ate the apples, (3) They will eat the apples. " (4) They are eating the apples,

5, This was your own idea, ” (1) This is their own idea", (2) This was your own idea. (3) These were their own ideas, (4) These are your own ideas.

2. That man has been here, * _____ (1) These men have been here. (2) Those men are here. (3) Those men have been everywhere, (4) This man is here,

6, I will entertain the gentleman. ~ (1) We did entertain the gentleman, ' (2) I have entertained the gentlemen, (3) You entertain the gentlemen. ' (4) We do entertain the gentlemen.

3, His ox has fallen into the ditoh~.

7, Which kind of machine will be sold? (1) Which kind of machine will they sell? (2) Which kind of machines are sold? (3) Which kinds of machines are being sold? (4) Which kind of machines are to be sold?

(1) His ox falls into the ditch. “ (2) Their ox fell into the ditches, (3) His oxen are falling into the ditches. (4) Their oxen fall into the ditches, 4. He and I will invite you, (1) He and I invite them. (2) He and they will invite them, (3) They and we invite you,' (4) They and we invited you*

8, The passer-by was toothpick, (1) The passers-by (2) The passer-bys pick, (3) The passers-by picks. (4) The passer-bys toothpick.

chewing his chew their toothpicks. will chew their tooth­ chewed their tooth­ are chewing their

Each of thefollowing sentenoes is to bechanged so that all pronouns are In the third person, singular, and all verbs are in thesingular, past tense» One of the four choices does this correctly. Write its number on the blank, SAMPLE:

We were with you. 3 (1) We are with them. (2) I was with him, (3) He was with her. (4) He is with her. (Continue to next page)

-2l.They will find John's books and mine, (1) You will find his books and their's’ ,' (2)We found his books and theirs, (3)They found John's books and mine• (4)She found John's books and his. 2,We had given them to you, (1)1 have given them to him, (2)He gave it to her, (3)She is giving it to them, (4)He has given them to her.

5*We had. just given it to him, (1)They had just given it to them, (2)He just gave it to him, (3)She has just given them to him, (4)lt had just been given to her.

6,How many of these are his? (1)How many of these were their a? (2)How much of these have been his? (3)How muoh of this was his? (4) How many of these are theirs?

3,They're yours, not theirs, (1)lt's his, not hers, (2)They were theirs, not yours, (3)lt was his, not hers, ' (4) It's hers, not theirs,

7,1 shall take them with me, (1)He will take them with him, (2)He took it with him, (3)They have taken them with them, (4)She is taking him with her.

4,We had his books; you have ours, ' (1)We had their books, she has his,(2)He has his books, you have hers, (3)We had your books, you had hen's, (4)She had his books, he had hers.

8.If you see them, you will tell’me, (1)lf he sees them he tells me* (2)lf you saw them, you told him, (3)lf she saw him, she told him, (4)lf he had seen them, he would have told her.

Grammatical Analogies Test In each line of the following exercise you are to notice the relationship between the first two words; then look at the third word and supply a fourth to give the second pair of words the same relationship as the first,

SAMPLE .

A

B

bird

birds

C

D dog

(l)puppies (2)dogs (3)dog’s (4)dogged

In the sample, "birds” is the plural of "bird", "dogs" is the plural of "dog", Theu-efoye, number 2 is marked in the blank at the right. A

C

D

I, boy

boys'

child

(1)child's (2)childrens (3) children’s (4) childrens

2, dog

dog’s

who

(l)whose (2)which (3) whom (4)what

3, apple

apples

fly

(l)flew (2)fly’s (3)fly (4)flies

4., hung

hang

set

(l)set (2)sit (3)sat (4)sitting

5, I

us

he

(l)his (2)him (3)they (4)them

6, he

his

it

(l)its (2)it’s (3)theirs (4)it

7, fly

flew

go

(l)gone (2)went (3)had gone (4)going

8* am

are

is

(l)was (2)are (3)were (4)be

to live

(l)lived (2)livelihood (3)lively (4)life

9» to succeed

B

success

2

-310.soft

softly'

good

(l)better (2)well (3)best (4)kindly

ll.lose

lose again

enter

(l)go back (2)go in (3)reenter (4)leave again

12.room

small room

kitchen

(l)pantry (2)kit (3)kitchenette (4)cuisine

13,cow

cow-like

girl

(l)girlie (2)girlish (3)youthful (4)female

14,man

men

you

(l)they (2)them (3)you (4)yours

15,,feel

feeling

see

(l)saw (2)sight (3)seen (4)sighting

16j,taken

took

done

(l)do (2)did (3)deed (4)done

17.law

lawyer

language

(l)linguist (2)languor (3)lingual (4)librarian

18.oddity

odd

persuasion (l)persuade (2)persuasively (3)persuasive (4)pursuing

In this exercise you are to supply the necessary word in column D so that the relation­ ship existing between the second pair of words(ih C and D) will be the same as the relationship between the first pair (in A and B), A B C D SAMPLE: he him she her In the sample, under A and B we have the pronoun "he’1 and its objective form “him”* Under C is the pronoun MsheM ; therefore D is correctly completed by the word ”herM * 1,

A John

B he

C Mary

2.

those

these

that

3,

I

we

myself

4,

fall

fallen

walk

5,

tree

trees

leaf

6.

ugly

uglier

beautiful

7,

horseman

horsemen

bacterium

8.

foot

feet

crisis

9,

act

actress

benefit

10, either

or

neither

llj, mouse

mice

brother-in-law

12^. sink

sunk

come

13,. forget

forgotten

get

14j, imagination

imagine

destruction

15^ he

his

she

16, color

colorful

heat

17. grist

grind

tale

18, collaborate

labor

infuriate

D