Validation of grammar,
content, spelling, and text length
in English and Korean writing of elementary school
students
Jungok Bae
UCLA Extension
This study evaluates the construct validity of four components
of writing in Korean and in English based on the responses produced by
bilingual and monolingual children. Composition data were collected from
students in grades 2 - 4 in a Korean/English dual language program, consisting
of two ethno-linguistic groups, and peers from English classes in Los Angeles
and Korean classes in Seoul. Tests consisting of letter-writing and story-writing
tasks equivalent for both English and Korean were developed. For each task,
parallel picture prompts and counter-balanced designs were administered.
Componential scoring evaluated four writing constructs content, grammar,
spelling, and text length separately for Korean and English compositions
while using common criteria.
A latent variable approach was used to carry out a construct
validation with EQS; interrelated hypotheses implied by both theory and
writing assessment were sequentially tested. Internal stages of investigation,
beginning with definitions of the writing constructs, instructional contexts
and study participants, tested and compared several alternative factor
models. Subsequently, multiple group analyses tested whether an identical
factor pattern holds across grades, gender, groups defined by parallel
picture use, and immersion/monolingual groups. Measurement properties (represented
by factor loadings and intercepts) were checked for their cross-group invariance
to see whether the measurement procedure had actually applied in the same
way and to the same extent across groups defined above.
In the external stages of investigation, writing factors
were examined as influence by student background characteristics. Factor-mean
analyses with covariance-structure MIMIC models using dummy-coded group
predictors are discussed pedagogically; the utility of this approach is
indicated. A simultaneous analysis investigated the relations between English
writing factors and corresponding Korean writing factors.
Results and implications are discussed sequentially. We
hope the methods and findings in this study provide a heuristic for future
research. |