Developing an SRT

Data Collection Tools
Interviews
Observation
Questionnaires
Recorded Text Testing
Sentence Repetition Testing
Word Lists
Participatory Methods
Matched-Guise

Sentence Repetition Tests
Developing an SRT
Administering an SRT
Analysing SRT Data

Introduction

Radloff (1991:37-38) <ref>Radloff, Carla F. (1991). Sentence Repetition Testing for Studies of Community Bilingualism. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.</ref> reminds us of how much depends on us taking particular care at this stage of working with SRTs. The process of creating an SRT is time-consuming and may seem over-elaborate. But we are creating a tool which will help to determine the linguistic future of entire speech communities and we should bear this in mind no matter what tools we are developing or administering.

We should pay particular attention at the development stage to finding the right personnel. This includes finding mother-tongue speakers of the test language who have the right level of education to contribute to test development. Taking time to rate participants for proficiency is also worth doing. And making sure our transcription of the sentences that we include in the test development is also important.

We want the most accurate results possible from our tools and so, we should be willing to be as thorough as we can be with our development of them.

Preliminaries

It's best to develop the test in an location where the test language is a common LWC and where you can get good access to contacts to help you develop the test.

Radloff recommends including the following personnel:

• The Researcher: er... that's you! You don't need to have much proficiency at all in the language of the test. But the more you have, the easier the development and administration of the test will be. You don't need to spend weeks living in the community prior to starting development but you could read any materials that other workers in that language have produced such as grammar notes or descriptions of phonology, etc.
• Educated Mother-Tongue Speakers: You'll need at least three of these. They elicit the initial sentences, select those to be used in the test and help develop the scoring system. It's helpful that these people have some education because you'll want to be testing in a standard form of the language and this is usually acquired through education in that language. Education also ensures that these helpers have enough ability in the test language to be able to construct a test in it. It may well be that there is no formal education in the LWC for the people you are working with. In this case, consider education to equal experience and select assistants who obviously display a high level of ability in the language and who aren't challenged by the construction of such a test.
• Second Language Speakers: You'll need a number of these at each proficiency level in the test language so you can calibrate the test. Radloff recommends looking to these social groupings for such a pool of speakers: a local college, a business, a neighbourhood, an organisation, etc.
• Test Administrator: We talk more about training the test administrator on our Administering an SRT page. Of course, the researcher could also administer the test but, to do so, they should be familiar to some extent with the test language. The administrator and the researcher need to have a language in common to carry out the training and communicate the results.

Recording equipment is obviously necessary along with enough headphones for a participant, the researcher and the administrator (if these are different people). In order for everyone to hear the recording at the same time, two Y-adaptors are needed.

Evaluating L2 Speakers

notes from Radloff section 3.2

Pilot Testing

notes from Radloff section 3.3

Refining the Test

notes from Radloff section 3.4

References

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