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Assessing Australian children with the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language - Revised: is it a useful tool?
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Abstract:
© 1996 Amanda Waschl ; This thesis examines the performance of a group of Australian children, aged between 5;6 and 7;0 years, on the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language - Revised (TACL-R: Carrow-Woolfolk, 1985). Using a combination of traditional test analysis and Rasch measurement, item difficulty, item discriminability, distractor effectiveness, person ability, and reliability were examined. The application of the TACL-R basal and ceiling rules was also considered, and the Australian children's performance on the test was compared to that of their American counterparts. The findings call into question the validity and reliability of the TACL-R for use with Australian children. The TACL-R ceiling rule appeared inappropriate for these children. Numerous items were identified as being problematic, and possible causes are discussed. Person fit statistics suggested that the test was an ineffective assessment of auditory comprehension for too many children. Reliability measures were low. Although the Australian children's performance was in some ways comparable to the American normative data, the use of overseas norms was concluded to be inappropriate. Future research could further examine the issues discussed in this paper. Such research could lead to modification of the TACL-R and the development of local norms. Until that time, the TACL-R should be used with caution in Australia.
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Keyword:
communicative disorders in children; comprehension testing; Elizabeth Carrow-Woolfolk; listening; Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language
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URL: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/38415
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