Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Reza Morad Sahraee ¹
• GholamHossein Rezapour ²

¹ linguistics department, faculty of Persian literature and foreign languages, Allame Tabatabaee university, Tehran, Iran

² Allameh Tabatabiee university

Abstract

One of the key features of a successful test is to have an appropriate reliability. This study determined the validity and reliability of the Persian language placement test of Sa’adi Foundation. This test consists of three main sections: language knowledge, writing and speaking. The language knowledge section consists of three sub-sections: grammar, vocabulary, and reading. The statistical population of the test consisted of 140 language learners from 41 countries. To calculate the reliability and the construct validity, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and Pearson correlation coefficient was used respectively. The reliability index in the language knowledge sub-sections’, grammar was 0.71, vocabulary was 0.817, reading was 0.861 and for the whole language knowledge was 0.916. The reliability of the two sections of speaking and writing was 0.749 and the total test was 0.895. Considering that the acceptable reliability index in Cronbach's Alpha method was at least 0.7, it was found that the test in various sections and sub-sections, and the test overall, had an acceptable reliability. The correlation coefficients obtained from the test sections, between language knowledge and speaking were 0.175, language knowledge and writing 0.186, and writing and speaking 0.602. Perhaps at first glance, test validity is not acceptable, but by comparing the correlation between the sub-sections of the language knowledge and the skills of speaking and writing, it can be concluded that the students have acted poorly in the productive skills, and this shows that in their educational background, they are concerned only with language knowledge or declarative knowledge, not the procedural knowledge.one of the application of this article is that Persian curriculum should focused on improving procedural knowledge of the Persian learner.

Keywords

• "testing"
• "placement test"
• "validity"
• "reliability"
• "backwash effect"